We were in Cristina Lk visiting friends and were sitting around the fire in the evening when my wife spots mom and here babies following along just inside the tree edge. She's running for the camera because she thinks they are cute and has never seen them in the wild. My buddy was running for his gun yelling I'm going to get you bastards this time! No pictures and no dead coons, we still laugh about it.
He hated them things, they're very destructive pests!
Collected a hair sample from one north east of Wabasca a few years ago. Anywhere with a road, river and/or garbage pile (read, everywhere potentially) could potentially have them.
Lets hope they stay at low density at the very least.
Raccoons have been here quite a long time. I remember seeing one in the NSR valley in Edmonton 40 years ago. The 'Mammals of Alberta' range map for them shows them associated with the major river valleys of the province, mostly on the prairie.
i also remember them being around wabamun lake when i was kid...
One time when I was a kid I remember my mom hitting one on the road near Ashmont.
And last summer a guy shot one here (Rich Lake).
And a guy I know quite well shot one last fall at St.Lina, which is near the Glendon/Mallaig area.
We are supposed to have coons here, but they are obviously. Just like elk, but 4 years ago some folks got a picture of a bull elk lying in a field just 2 minutes East of where I live. Strange strange things I tell ya..............
We have had them for years in South East Sask. I trap about a dozen every year in the farm yard. You do not want them. In the fall they will rip shingles off of buildings and tear holes in the boards looking for a place to sleep for the winter. The females do the same thing in the spring looking for a place to den. They are worse than rats. They are very hard on all ground nesting bird nests. In the fall they will come right into town to raid garden corn. They love old farm yards. Just look for old buildings with holes in the roof if you want to find them.
Go to the Pouce Coupe dump. I used to shoot them there with my dad and his friends when I was a little kid.
We saw a coyote try to get into a fight with one at the dump, and boy did that coyote learn a lesson.
Rumour has it that these animals made it up there during the building of the Alaska highway when all sorts of stuff were being shipped by truck and rail into Dawson Creek from the U.S.
hmm. Wonder when a guy gonna start seeing them like coyotes, seems alot are around just seldom seen. If anybody sees an let me know would like to take the hound in training out.
good sized coon ,but they do get a lot bigger ... before I quit the trapping game because I was making too much money at it I caught one that weighed 36# south of Lethbridge.. the ultimate 4x4 varmint .. can do anything but fly..
Raccoons in Alberta
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