Raccoons

KEDM Public Radio | By Kelby Ouchley

Published November 7, 2019 at 11:21 AM EST

One night not long ago I was surprised to hear scratching noises on my bathroom window, especially since that window is on the second story of my house. A flashlight revealed the culprit to e a raccoon, one that is known to us as she frequently raids the bird feeders and compost pile. This occasion revealed several things about the natural history of raccoons. First, they are mostly nocturnal although they occasionally can be seen out and about in daylight hours. Second, they are excellent climbers. She had climbed twenty feet straight up the side of my wooden house...

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Kelby Ouchley

Kelby was a biologist and manager of National Wildlife Refuges for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 30 years. He has worked with alligators in gulf coast marshes and Canada geese on Hudson Bay tundra. His most recent project was working with his brother Keith of the Louisiana Nature Conservancy on the largest floodplain restoration project in the Mississippi River Basin at the Mollicy Unit of the Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge, reconnecting twenty-five square miles of former floodplain forest back to the Ouachita River.

See stories by Kelby Ouchley