A raccoon boot camp in Mississippi teaches abandoned kits survival skills

A wildlife center in Mississippi is providing a specialized program, dubbed as "raccoon boot camp," aimed at teaching abandoned raccoon kits essential survival skills. The center, Woodside Wildlife Rescue, located in Pass Christian, is run by founder Paula Woodside and her associate, Raquel Priest. The initiative is necessary as most raccoon mothers die or are separated from their kits due to storms, accidents, or other unfortunate circumstances.

Woodside, a former U.S. merchant mariner, opened the rescue in 2019 after treating a baby raccoon on her ship. The rescue facility typically cares for dozens of kits each year, currently 76 in the 2021 season, along with other native wildlife. When the city animal control or citizens locate a raccoon in need of assistance, they contact Woodside or Priest, who work together to reunite the kits with their mothers if possible, or bring them to the rescue center.

The kits undergo a rigorous training program, including lessons in food hunting and escape techniques, as if they were soldiers in boot camp. The staff demonstrates skills like digging for food, opening pine cones, and fishing in shallow pools, using trills and whistles to communicate danger and safety. The raccoons also practice swimming in the center's pond, an essential skill in the hurricane-prone south Mississippi region.

Graduation for the raccoons occurs six months after their rescue, marked by a ceremony featuring Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance Marches," a roll call of the graduating kits' names, and a blessing from a reverend as they are released into different sections of the forest-covered property. For kits that do not survive, the staff holds a second ceremony to honor and scatter their ashes. The goal of this unique program is to give the kits a better chance at survival and to help them embrace their mischievous nature.