Blue Ridge Wildlife Center Patient of the Week: Northern Raccoon

Our first group of juvenile raccoons has been released. Photos / Blue Ridge Wildlife Center

These moments are bittersweet!

Raccoons take a long time to rehab, averaging 3-6 months in care depending on their age at admission. It’s also a lot of work for our team to feed, clean, and provide enrichment to keep their minds active and help them practice life skills.

And wow—they grow up fast! Here are photos of them during their time at the Center, and below are photos of the same group shortly after being released.

We still have two more groups of raccoons in care that are growing, learning, and preparing for the ‘real world’. Our latest group to arrive at the Center will most likely need to stay with us until at least September.

We’re always looking for great release sites for babies we’ve raised here – in many cases, a mixed group cannot be separated and returned to their individual homes, so they must be released as a group within Clarke County, Virginia.

If you have a nice wooded area, preferably with a creek or near a water source, and would love to help give wildlife a second chance on your property, we’d love to hear from you so we can add your address to our database of release sites!

Animals looking for release sites include raccoons, foxes, groundhogs, squirrels, opossums, skunks, and potentially others! Please email info@blueridgewildlifectr.org to give us your contact and location information, and we will add you to our list!

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