The bushy tail is marked with alternating rings of light and dark fur. Broad cheeks, a long slender muzzle, erect, rounded ears and a black strip or mask across the cheeks and eyes give the raccoon a masked bandit-like appearance. The fur on a raccoon's feet is light gray in color, and the soles of the paws are hairless. Usually by late November the winter coat has replaced the shorter summer fur. At that time the pelt becomes prime.
Raccoons are omnivorous.
This means they eat a tremendous variety of food, both vegetable and animal matter, including wild cherries and grapes, raspberries, blackberries, persimmons, apples, beechnuts, acorns, melons, corn, grass, leaves, earthworms, crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, grubs, fish, frogs, crayfish, mice, carrion, eggs, etc. Raccoons have excellent senses of hearing, sight and smell. They also possess an acute sense of touch in their forefeet, enabling them to catch fish and other small, quick prey. Long, sharp claws anchor slippery food items. Many naturalists raccoons derive some information from handling the food underwater which may cause them to accept or reject it.