In the northern areas of the raccoon's range mating season is January through March, with a peak in February. Behavior Raccoons are nocturnal and seldom active in the daytime. During extremely cold, snowy periods raccoons have been observed sleeping for long periods at a time, but do not hibernate. Primarily a solitary animal, the only real social groups raccoons form are that of mother and young. Although, occasionally a male may stay with a female for a month prior to breeding and until after the birth of their young.
Raccoons have a highly developed tactile sense.
Their human-like forepaws are especially sensitive and enable the raccoon to handle and pry open prey and climb with ease. With their fine sense of hearing raccoons are also especially alert. Similarly, raccoons have excellent night vision. Their common gait is a shuffle like walk, however, they are able to reach speeds of 15 miles per hour on the ground. Raccoons climb with great agility and are not bothered by a drop of 35 to 40 feet.