"Raccoon Nation" premieres on PBS's Nature series Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 8 p.m., 7 p.m. Central. Coming on DVD/Blu-ray March 13.
by Odie Henderson
Let's be frank: People watch nature documentaries because they want to see wild animals doing the Wild Thing. This can be shown on regular TV because, as Bea Arthur's Maude famously said, "animals making love is rated G. People making love like animals--that's R " An animal documentary serves to showcase how its subjects survive, hunt, eat, play, and yes, get their freak on. There's a reason the sexiest piece of music Elmer Bernstein ever wrote used to play over footage of animals gettin' bizzy on "National Geographic." A Barry White soundtrack would have been way too hot for TV.
Alas, "Raccoon Nation" is a relatively chaste animal documentary, which is unusual but no less interesting. Its focus is on another popular topic of nature non-fiction: man's effect on the animal kingdom. Our species is usually depicted as destructive, and rightfully so. Forests and wooded areas are disappearing, leaving animals homeless and upsetting the natural balance by misplacing both predator and prey. "Raccoon Nation" takes a different approach, however, suggesting that humans may be responsible for the continued survival of the misplaced animal. The more we try to get rid of raccoons, the smarter they get. It's side hustle disguised as adaptation.
As more and more development occurs, the animals start living closer to us. The urban jungle is now literally a jungle. Deer have been spotted in my hometown, and 10 miles away, Irvington, New Jersey saw an episode of "Bearz N The Hood" when a city block's trashcans were set upon by ursine visitors. My current neighborhood is overrun with rabbits, foxes, possums, squirrels and birds who are decidedly NOT pigeons. I walked out of my house this summer, and there were so many animals in my yard I thought I was in "Song of the South."
Like the aforementioned animals, raccoons have become urban dwellers, and unlike in the woods, they have only one predator in their new environment. "Raccoon Nation" states that raccoons were originally tropical animals who found their way north, following their mandatory need of water up the North American continent. They ended up in places like New York, Chicago, and Toronto, Canada, which the documentary dubs "the raccoon capital of the world. " These former inhabitants of a hotter climate are now located as far as Alaska, where they can see Russia from their nests and hopefully have thicker coats than the raccoons in Florida.
"No wild species evolved to live in cities," says Dr. Stan Gehrt, foremost raccoon expert with 25 years of research as a credential. "Only animals who live in cities are animals who are extremely flexible. "
"Raccoon Nation" preaches to this choir when it discusses the urban habits of its subject. For about a year of my adolescence, my family co-habited with some increasingly annoying raccoons. Originally, we had squirrels in the attic, but after a month or so, they sublet the place. The raccoons moved in, and the property values went down. They were far more destructive, and this phenomenon is now so popular that an insurance company has a commercial touting protection against attic raccoon damage. Since I slept on the top bunk, I could hear them scurrying 5 feet over my head at night, screeching, fighting, and God knows what else. It sounded as if they were coming through the ceiling at any moment. This is why I can't sleep now; back then, I half-expected to wake up with the creature from John Frankenheimer's "Prophecy" on my head. Eventually my mother got sick of them and, well, I'll be polite and just say they got evicted.
According to "Raccoon Nation," one of the more fascinating things about this species is the change in its disposition depending on its environment. Dr. Gehrt says one can study raccoons for years and still not remotely know the breadth of their ability to change. Country raccoons are less daring and more fearful of people, presumably because, at least where my relatives are in the South, people eat them. City raccoons are comfortable with close human proximity and are a lot more adaptable. They also seem to be more fertile, as there are 50 times more raccoons in Toronto than in the rural areas surrounding it.
Watch A Night Out on PBS. See more from Nature.
The primary experiment in "Raccoon Nation" is conducted by Dr. Suzanne McDonald, a Canadian scientist who plans to put GPS trackers on raccoons in three different areas of Toronto to record their habits, travels and location patterns. This intense study will collect more information about raccoons than is currently known. She and her colleague tag three different raccoons, one of whom is a mother with a litter of kits. This particular collar yields some great footage, including a suspenseful sequence with the kits learning how to break into a garage for food. With their striped tails, capable hands and bandit-masked faces, this plays like a raccoon "Rififi."
Another intriguing question addressed in this documentary is how a North American animal wound up both across the Pacific in Japan, and across the Atlantic in Germany. In Japan, they are destroying temples and shrines that have stood for over a thousand years. In the 70's, Nippon Animation introduced a cartoon called "Rascal the Raccoon." It had a "101 Dalmations" effect on the Japanese, who, based on the cutesy animated star, thought it would be groovy to own the real thing. Over 1500 raccoons were imported every year. When the real thing turned out to be a ripe bastard, as anyone in contact with a raccoon can attest, the Japanese released them into the woods where they began wrecking those temples faster than the ravages of time ever could. These buildings are not reproducible, and since raccoons have no natural predators in the woods of Japan, the country has a zero tolerance policy. "Raccoon Nation" interviews a Japanese woman who is a raccoon assassin. "My job is to rid Japan of raccoons," she tells us. "Unfortunately, that's my mission."
While "Raccoon Nation" addresses how humans have made raccoons smarter, it doesn't explicitly address if it made them unhealthier. There are some fat-ass raccoons on this show, and I wondered if this was due to the increase in obesity amongst humans. After all, the raccoons are dumpster-divers, and will eat almost anything we consume and throw out. Our attempts to keep them from our garbage may make them smarter, but once they get into the trash, what is our diet doing to them?
This is an engaging hour of information from "Nature." Watching it, I learned that raccoons have something akin to taste buds in their hands, something I'm glad human beings do not. Our documentarians conveniently leave out that raccoons copulate for hours, and multiple times, which is what they were probably doing over my head in the ceiling all those nights. Imagine what Elmer Bernstein could have done with that.
Watch The Importance of Raccoon Play on PBS. See more from Nature.
Watch Urban Raccoon Territory on PBS. See more from Nature.
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A globetrotting computer programmer by trade and movie lover by hobby, Odie Henderson has contributed to Slant Magazine's The House Next Door since 2006. Additionally, his work has appeared at Movies Without Pity (2008) and numerous other sites. He currently runs the blog Tales of Odienary Madness and is the troublemaker behind the Black History Mumf series at Big Media Vandalism.
It's hard to feel any pity for a bunch of Japanese shrines. Human culture is relatively ephemeral. People will get more upset over a 700 year old temple being damaged or destroyed than they will over the destruction of species that, besides being actual living beings, are millions of years old.
The world would be much healthier and better if nature were to reclaim that and much more.
I also didn't like the casualness and the tone you used when mentioning how your mother murdered (or had murdered) a bunch of raccoons. You made a light-hearted line out of the murder of innocent, sentient creatures who weren't even any threat to you or anyone else.
It's good that you're interested in nature. Now to actually care about it.
Odie: Thanks for libeling my dear old Mama! I hope she sues! As for raccoons not being dangerous, that's not true. I advise you to watch this program because you are not informed of the diseases they carry. Invest some time in "Raccoon Nation" on Wednesday. You might learn something.
There's been a rash of cat-killings by raccoons in British Columbia in the last couple of years - people have watched their cats dragged off by gangs of the things and torn apart. Ain't nothing innocent about these little gremlins.
In the 70's, my sister in Los Angeles had a raccoon named Dolomite. He just sat in his cage and ate most of the time. I think she finally released him in the forest. I'm looking forward to the PBS show.
Odie: "Way down in Los Angeles, in the jungle deep..."
Dear Paul,
I didn't like the casualness with which you decided that art and architecture is disposable. A 35,000+ year history of objects that reflect the changing nature of civilization, consciousness and spiritual ideation is not fodder for your philistine rhetoric. It's nice that you recognize that art and architecture exist. Now to actually care about it.
First apartment I lived in had a suspended ceiling with squirrels running a daycare within. Except in the fall when they were storing spherical objects; then it sounded more like a bowling alley.
Thanks for the heads up on this program. Will set my DVR!
m
Odie: Who knew squirrels loved The Big Lebowski!
The little varmints show up as roadkill around here, much like skunks and deer. I was thinking that last summer was a particularly bad one to be a raccoon, but maybe they just were more plentiful.
Rabies comes to mind with the bandits. And they are destructive. We are not really in the country, heavily traveled road, but woods and many mature trees abound.
Like your mom, I don't care to share my home with outdoor critters. One of my mother's favorite memories from childhood was being allowed to tag along on a raccoon hunt with her parents and farm hands and hound dogs. She didn't mention eating them. This would have been in the early thirties in Kentucky. They had a small dairy farm. Nocturnal hunts were rare things indeed.
Thanks for the review. Will set the dvr.
Odie: It's well worth watching. I haven't eaten any raccoons either, but I have eaten squirrel, and not on purpose either!
I found it interesting that you said, "man's effect on the animal kingdom. Our species is usually depicted as destructive, and rightfully so. Forests and wooded areas are disappearing, leaving animals homeless and upsetting the natural balance." Where, specifically, are the forests and wooded areas disappearing? What evidence do you have {other than, "well, everyone knows it is true!"} that man is upsetting the natural balance? Could you please define what the natural balance is? You provide no evidence for these statement. You imply that man is not part of nature {we are}. I am a high school English teacher. If a students handed me this 'essay' I would return it and insist that they show evidence when stating such human hating attributes. I would also insist they make sure they are not following the popular global warming crowd and demand they think for themselves. Something you should consider doing.
Odie: I'm glad I did NOT have you as an English teacher. There are FIVE errors in your comment! I went to public school, and even I can find your third grade mistakes. Also, as an English teacher, you should not have a political opinion on a student's paper. You don't get to send it back because the student's views do not mirror yours. Give me an effin' break! I pity your poor students.
Dear Paul and Kry,
Why can't we value both shrines and wildlife? Yes, raccons carry rabies and can be destructive and have no regard for what we value, but humans carry other diseases, and we often have no regard for the natural world that we destroy or any sense of our connection to it. I found both of you to be a bit holier than thou in your views. I like raccoons, but I would not "Disneyfy" them too much. My sister lives in Toronto and has no positive feelings for these critters, but I remember seeing them all the time as a kid when I camped in British Columbia, and I thought they were great. But there they were in the woods and much shier and more reclusive. I think it's amazing when any animal can survivie alongside of us in an urban setting, so I marvel at them for that reason; however, before people complain too much about this or that species, why not ask how they got where they are and did we help in that process? I enjoyed the article. Thanks.
Okay you can be Frank and I'll just be myself. "People watch nature documentaries because they want to see wild animals doing the Wild Thing." Uh... maybe if you're 10 years old (or maybe if you're Odie Henderson, haha). Most of us just watch pornos or stay up late for some good old Skin-o-Max if we want to see the Beast with Two Backs. I watch nature docs and assume most others do because it's interesting to see the animal activity that we're not usually privy to in our daily lives (and yes I realize sex is among those activities).
Nice job of hammering Bik by the way, I pity his/her poor students as well.
This report didn't mention whether the Asian students who were "threatened" ate the extra calories whether they chose the American food or not. I.E. the extra calories merely may have been response to the stress rather than switching preferences. IOW if so, this piece could have been called (should have been called?) When Scientists Act Like Jerks, Asian-Americans Reach for COMFORT FOOD. Put another way the old saw should read "An hour after I eat Chinese food, I let myself feel stressed out again."