This story is from Karen Inman

In St. Augustine, Florida, north of town, we have a small airport. My husband (Randy) and I had just gotten back from finally getting a bite to eat, when the wildlife phone rang. The lady on the other line began to say, “I work in the tower at the airport and one of our pilot’s has just left the runway. As soon as he got in the air he radioed back to say there is an injured raccoon laying on the side of the runway”. He told her, “I just hit a raccoon as I was leaving the ground and all I saw was the raccoon rolling down the runway. Please go out to check on this poor raccoon! I didn’t even see him before I took off!”

I told the lady that we would be there as soon as we could and just to keep an eye on the raccoon to make sure he could be found. When we arrived here was this raccoon sitting on the side of the runway, looking up at the sky. He was extremely disoriented. He had some blood coming from his mouth and runway burn on all 4 feet and different areas of his body. So, we loaded him up and headed back home to examine him better.

Upon examination we found that the raccoon was a bit concussed. The blood from his mouth was because he had bitten his tongue and he had a cut lip. It did not appear that there were any internal injuries. However, he needed to be watched for a few days.

We found out the next day that the plane had not actually hit the raccoon, nor did the pilot run over the raccoon. Actually what happened was the wheel on the front of the plane just clipped the raccoon and rolled him down the runway. I think the poor pilot was more upset about the whole ordeal than the raccoon was.

The raccoon was a young adult male, probably around 6 to 7 months old. I don’t normally name the adults that have just come in for care, unless they are going to be with us for a while. However, I just could not pass up the fact that “Runway” would be a good name for him.

Runway stayed with us for about a month, just to make sure there were no permanent injuries and to make sure that his mouth had healed and he was eating ok.

We released Runway back in the area that he came from, just not real close to the airport.

Originally found at:

http://www.sjwildlifecare.org/runway_raccoon.htm

Raccoons Find A Home At Montclair’s Watchung Plaza Train Station

BY Liz George

Baristanet.com

Friday, Oct 19, 2012 6:49am

April 19, 2012

VALHALLA, N.Y. – A 33-year-old White Plains woman was attacked by a raccoon while getting into her car in the Valhalla train station parking lot Tuesday evening, Mount Pleasant Police Chief Louis Alagno said. 

Alagno said the woman saw the raccoon looking at her from underneath an adjacent car, and rushed to get into her own car before it could attack, but the raccoon was too fast and bit her on the ankle.  Police said the raccoon bite broke the skin, the woman dialed 911 and was taken to the White Plains Hospital to be treated for rabies.

“It’s an unfortunate situation and it’s an unusual situation,” Alagno said Thursday.  “People need to be cautious for wild animals and not go near them.”

The raccoon is still on the loose. 

Caren Halbfinger, a spokesperson with the Westchester County Health Department, said a raccoon attack is rare.

“It’s not a common attack at all which is all the more reason that this woman needs to be treated for rabies,” Halbfinger said. 

Halbfinger added the unusually warm weather increases the possibility of human and animal interaction.

“Now that the weather has been so warm so early in the season, the animals are out and the people are out so it increases the possibility of an incident occurring,” Halbfinger said.

Halbfinger advised residents to not leave food outside and to stay away from touching any wild animal.  

Raccoon saved after shutting down Burlington intersection

Gloria Er-Chua

 Staff Reporter

The Star

(Burlington, Ontario)  A busy intersection in Burlington came to a standstill on Friday after a small raccoon became trapped atop a traffic light stand.

The little critter caused quite a stir, bringing out about a dozen workers from multiple organizations.

“It was one of those fluke things that, in 21 years of business, we’ve never seen,” said Bill Dowd of Humane Wildlife Control, who performed the rescue.

As a crowd of about 40 looked on, a the workers from Humane Wildlife Control, Burlington Animal Shelter, Burlington police and Burlington Hydro gently lifted the animal to safety at Fairview St. and Cumberland Ave.

“We were about 45 feet in the air in the city’s lift truck and we got above the raccoon,” said Dowd, who eventually captured the animal using a snare pole.

“I had to hold it inside a bucket,” he said. “The animal was starting to get really agitated with all the commotion.”

Dowd said the raccoon was released near some railway tracks behind the busy intersection.

Traffic was stopped in all four directions during the rescue, in case the animal tried to jump to the ground, he said.

The Burlington Animal Shelter and Humane Wildlife Control began receiving calls from motorists around 10 a.m. about the trapped raccoon, Dowd said.

The animal, who is about four months old, was released around 2:30 p.m.

It is unclear why the raccoon was in the light stand. Raccoons are nocturnal and generally try to avoid being spotted by humans, Dowd said.

“Maybe it’s one of those teenage things,” he said, speculating that the raccoon “just wanted to create some traffic chaos.”

“It all ended well.”

Okay, trash trucks aren’t regularly scheduled transit. Still.

Looks like a young raccoon who probably made the mistake of lingering too long over a meal…

Stuck raccoon causes train delays

Published: 17 Oct 11 10:58 CET

 A raccoon stuck in a railway switch point shut down the intercity train lines between the central German towns of Göttingen and Kassel on Sunday.

Trains in both directions on the line in the state of Lower Saxony were suspended for an hour a half, while technicians removed the raccoon, which paid for its curiosity with its life.

Three trains were forced to stop mid-journey, while five others had to be re-directed. A spokeswoman for German rail operator Deutsche Bahn was not able to say how many passengers were affected by the delay.

The delays of all eight trains amounted to 270 minutes. 

However, the raccoon is not thought to have been a member of the left-wing extremist group that sabotaged German railways in and around Berlin last week.

=======

I didn’t know there are raccoons in Europe. I thought they were a North American animal.

In German, a raccoon is a wash-bear: Waschbär.

Successful raccoon foraging, from 2008; looks like the Bedford Park Boulevard platform again. The raccoon demonstrates superb chimney climbing technique and dives right into the <s>catering truck</s> trash can.

Unsuccessful raccoon foraging video (September 13, 2011) shows the Bedford Park Boulevard stop, in the Bronx, in New York.

Stagecoach16281 uploaded a short video of a reluctant, leashed raccoon on the New York City subway. The raccoon obviously wants to have a good sniff around, slowly, but the pace of human travel doesn’t allow for checking out every object, doorway, and bit of floor nearby.

Will10469 (uploader and presumably the photographer) shot a pleasant, mellow video of three raccoons hanging out doing raccoon stuff at one end of an outdoor New York City subway platform. You can hear a Northern Cardinal calling in the background, and lots of other birds.