Originally published at: Wayward raccoon spent the day atop a very tall light pole | Boing Boing
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Impressive. I wouldn’t think a metal lamp post would give much purchase for climbing. My barn has been overrun by raccoons this year. They’ve bloomed like algae in my area and I find new ones every day. But none on top of the telephone poles around here as far as I can tell.
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Um, yah, and the family dog went to live on a farm. Suffice it to say, the raccoon is not on the pole anymore.
Many animals can’t really “climb down” and rely on being able to jump from wherever they get to. Cats are the classic example of course, but they’re not the only ones. The biomechanics of their claws and legs are such that they can’t really climb downward. In a situation like this where the raccoon got halfway up the pole and was committed without realizing how tall it was, well…. there was probably only one way down at that point.
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I was going to note that the apocryphal response from many fire brigades to a cat (or critter) stuck in a tree is
“how many dead cats or cat skeletons have you ever seen in a tree?”
… so, no, they aren’t coming out for it.
But given your note re climbing down not being as easy as climbing up I guess all the cats (critters) stuck up trees either survived the fall or didn’t.
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Well they wound up there because their primary chute got fouled and the reserve one dumped them there.
Now it’s too high to just jump off and they cut off their rigging harness to quick thus losing the Raccoon Ranger emergency beacon as if blew away.
well, it’s a theory…
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I love the moment at the beginning where the raccoon is clearly like “are you…is it on…are you recording? ok.”
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Raccoons are able to twist their back feet around so that they can climb down trees.
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Is that right? I know it applies to squirrels.
As with squirrels, raccoons like nesting in trees. They’ve evolved to be good climbers.
“The normal means of escaping danger is by climbing the nearest tree, and raccoons are skilled in rapidly moving up the tree trunk. Raccoons, by rotating their hind feet, can descend from trees head-first.”
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Marvelous, enlightened.
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