Photo Album: We gotcha! Raccoons and babies safely caught in Spring Lake, NJ

A homeowner in Spring Lake, NJ contacted Cowleys after hearing wildlife sounds coming from inside the garage wall voids. She knew that she wasn’t imagining things because had seen a raccoon in the garage. There were no access holes ripped open by the critter. As often happens, homeowners leave their garage doors open once the weather warms up, making it effortless for wildlife to enter. A wide open garage is just too tempting an opportunity to pass up.  Upon inspection, I immediately saw the raccoon pathway following its muddy paw prints. The raccoon was accessing the void area between the garage wall and siding by climbing the plywood walls. Raccoon tracks are quite distinctive. They have five long toes in the front and hind track, with the front track smaller than the hind track. The toes of the front track tend to splay wider than the hind, while the hind track’s palm pad is larger. The front palm pad has a distinctive crescent-shape that is curved in at the posterior end. Also, raccoons often use a walking pattern where the rear foot lands next to the opposite front foot, so you’ll see front/hind pairs of tracks next to each other. If you did not notice the two different shapes of tracks, it would look as though the animal was hopping instead of walking. These tracks were a proof positive confirmation that I was dealing with a raccoon, and because of the time of the year, I suspected a mother raccoon was using the wall void as a den for her babies.