Baby Raccoons Learn to Swim, Forage and Avoid Trouble at Mississippi “Boot Camp”

There are no obstacle courses or competitive relay races at this Mississippi boot camp. The cutest little recruits do, however, learn how to forage, swim, climb trees, and stay out of traps.

Woodside Wildlife Rescue in Pass Christian calls the program its “raccoon boot camp,” where young raccoons separated from their mothers are prepared for an eventual return to the wild.

This training model has some history behind it. In a 2020 profile of founder Paula Woodside, the rescue itself described boot camp as a central part of its rehabilitation efforts. Woodside founded the rescue in 2019 after years of wildlife rehabilitation work. Its agenda includes teaching young raccoons skills including foraging, climbing, swimming, and trap avoidance.

This year alone, the rescue has raised 76 raccoon kits, according to fresh reporting from the Associated Press, whose coverage was announced and shared by the Woodside Wildlife Rescue.

Their Lessons Start With The Essentials

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Woodside and rescue director Raquel Priest take the young animals into the woods and show them all about finding food, in its many forms. Worms are hidden in the ground, while pine cones and acorns are opened to help the kits learn what is edible. Staff also take them deeper into the woods, where they learn behaviors intended to help them avoid predators.

They even receive training in the rescue’s pond, both for lessons in fishing and water safety.

Eventually, the lessons move outside the raccoons’ comfort zone. For one of their final exercises, a volunteer traps the raccoons in cages in an effort to teach them to avoid traps and become warier of people before release.

Raccoon Boot Camp Even Comes With Graduation

About six months after entering rehabilitation, raccoons considered ready for release get something few wild animals can claim: a graduation ceremony.

The Associated Press reports that Woodside and Priest play Edward Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance Marches.” In keeping with graduation ceremony tradition, they read the names of the graduating raccoons before a reverend blesses them. The animals are then released into another forested section of the rescue’s property.

The ceremonial sendoff comes at the end of a process designed around one goal. Woodside Wildlife Rescue says its mission is to rehabilitate injured and orphaned native wildlife until the animals are ready to return to their natural habitats and sustain themselves.

Even if they don’t get a diploma to hang on the walls of their den.