Raccoon Carries Baby in Riverside Park
Last night I saw something I’d never seen before: a mother raccoon carrying her tiny baby in her mouth.
The photos, sadly, are blurry. My camera had run out of battery, so I had only my iPhone, which doesn’t do well in low light.
I entered the park just as the sun was setting over the Hudson River.
I scanned the great retaining wall for raccoons.
The setting sun illuminated the entrance to a den, but no animals were visible.
We walked south for a while, then returned to take another look at the wall. A short distance from the primary den, a raccoon was moving on the wall, carrying something in its mouth. My first thought, oddly, perhaps, was that it was carrying some kind of prey. But no, this was a baby raccoon, dangling from the mother’s mouth twenty feet above the ground.
The mother carried it gingerly along the wall. At last, she ducked into a hole and disappeared. Loud, deep growling sounds came from the wall. Clearly the hole was occupied. It sounded like pigs grunting. I worried that the baby might be injured by the surly host.
The dog, tied up a short distance away, was fascinated by the rather alarming sounds.
After some time, the mother emerged, the baby still dangling from her mouth, and continued heading north along the wall. It’s not easy to walk on that wall, even without a baby in your mouth. She went almost all the way to the top.
I could see the head of a pedestrian who strolled along the uppermost promenade, unaware of of the raccoons just a few feet below. Then the mother carefully made her way down the great wall until she reached the ground. Skirting the base of the wall, she continued north on all fours, moving much faster than she could on the vertical surface of the wall.
I left the mother and her baby to their night’s journey. I am guessing that, for whatever reason, she was seeking out a new den, or perhaps, a second den. I hope she found what she was looking for. If there were other babies to be moved, I hope she managed to go back and get them all safely settled. No matter how much wildlife behavior we are lucky enough to observe, there is so much more that goes on unobserved. Mystery remains, even deepens, and every observation raises new questions that keep me coming back to the park, and back to the animals.

I believe this is the mother raccoon, seen here ten days ago.
Good luck, mama.
For much more on New York City’s raccoons, see the raccoon archives.
Explore posts in the same categories: 2013, In the City, NYC Parks, raccoons, Riverside Park, Seasons, Spring, Wildlife/Natural HistoryThis entry was posted on April 7, 2013 at 10:21 am and is filed under 2013, In the City, NYC Parks, raccoons, Riverside Park, Seasons, Spring, Wildlife/Natural History. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: Manhattan raccoons, nyc raccoons, raccoon carrying baby, raccoon retaining wall, raccoons riverside park, urban raccoons
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June 23, 2013 at 6:35 pm
[…] a clown car. Last night, seven racoons climbed the wall. Seven! Back in early April, I watched a mother raccoon carry a baby along the wall, clearly looking to move it into a new den. My guess would be that this is the same […]
April 10, 2013 at 12:33 am
Whoever said it is easy to walk along a wall with a baby dangling from a mama’s mouth?!
April 7, 2013 at 7:50 pm
Wow, how many times do you see that in NYC, or anywhere, as a matter of fact?!
I do appreciate my tranquil life up here in Putnam County but my heart always beats a city rhythm, so I am jealous of your daily ,and I treasure my trips to The Big Apple. If you want, see my latest blog for my glimpse of Springtime downtown last week.Too bad you and your pup aren’t in ine of my snapshots!
April 7, 2013 at 5:25 pm
When I was a kid, we had a porch under which lived, during different years, families of raccoons, skunks and oppossums.
There are quite a few Raccoons near where my sister lives in Baltimore, but I haven’t identified the locations where they live. However, one evening, we were sitting in the den in the early evening and I saw a dark shadow silhoutted on a slope. Slowly, a mother raccoon emereged followed by four babies. As she made her way throught the yard, one baby got distracted. She waited for them all to catch up, but finally, she had to retrace her steps to get him. That was the best view we have had of the nighttime visitors. It bright enough to see, but not bright enough for photographs.
April 7, 2013 at 3:28 pm
No it is not too late to become an animal biologist….but, wait, you already are.
April 7, 2013 at 1:11 pm
Very touching.
April 7, 2013 at 11:42 am
Melissa–
A marvelous little story of life in the raccoon tenement. Thank you!