A raccoon boot camp in Mississippi teaches abandoned kits survival skills

(AP) — Muddy, sweat-soaked and occasionally bloody, the dedicated staff at a Mississippi wildlife center are drill sergeants. Baby raccoons.Welcome to raccoon boot camp, where the goal is to help sick or injured animals learn to survive in the south Mississippi wilderness — a skill set they would have learned from their mothers, most of whom died or were separated from their kits by storms, traffic accidents or other traumatic events.It's a challenge that's left Woodside Wildlife Rescue’s founder, Paula Woodside, with cuts from scared, defensive raccoons and their sharp claws, and when she isn’t able to save a kit, emotional scars too.“When these babies come in, and they’re so desperate, it’s heartbreaking,” said Woodside, who most days is covered in sweat from caring for the animals in the Mississippi heat, and dirt from curious kits crawling up her legs and onto her shoulders. “It’s really important for them to get a little bit of a head start.”Wildlife rescue staff teach the raccoons by exampleWoodside, a former U.S.

merchant mariner, opened the rescue in 2019 after she helped rehabilitate a baby raccoon found aboard her ship. The rescue in the coastal city of Pass Christian typically raises dozens of kits each year, 76 so far this year, alongside other indigenous wildlife.City animal control and citizens call Woodside, or the rescue’s director, Raquel Priest, when they find a raccoon in need of saving. Together, they attempt to reunite the kits with their mothers, if they can find them, or bring the kits to the rescue.The youngest raccoons will spend a few weeks mostly indoors being bottle-fed by rehabbers until they’re vaccinated for diseases carried by cat colonies and dogs and are ready to move to outdoor pens.Though the kits stay close to their adoptive human parents, they’re eventually allowed to roam free during the day on the rescue’s rural 20-acre (8-hectare) property, a sprawling mix of meadows and thick forest spotted with ponds and a nearby river.

Thanks to that setting, Woodside and Priest can take their troops on learning excursions, a luxury many wildlife rescues don't have, Woodside said.Woodside and Priest teach by example. They hide worms in the dirt to show the kits how to dig for food, and break open pine cones or acorns to reveal the seeds inside. The raccoons' eyes light up when they encount…

Welcome to raccoon boot camp, where the goal is to help sick or injured animals learn to survive in the south Mississippi wilderness — a skill set they would have learned from their mothers, most of whom died or were separated from their kits by storms, traffic accidents or other traumatic events. It’s a challenge that’s left Woodside Wildlife Rescue’s founder, Paula Woodside, with cuts from scared, defensive raccoons and their sharp claws, and when she isn’t able to save a kit, emotional scars too. “When these babies come in, and they’re so desperate, it’s heartbreaking,” said Woodside, who most days is covered in sweat from caring for the animals in the Mississippi heat, and dirt from curious kits crawling up her legs and onto her shoulders.

City animal control and citizens call Woodside, or the rescue’s director, Raquel Priest, when they find a raccoon in need of saving. The youngest raccoons will spend a few weeks mostly indoors being bottle-fed by rehabbers until they’re vaccinated for diseases carried by cat colonies and dogs and are ready to move to outdoor pens. Though the kits stay close to their adoptive human parents, they’re eventually allowed to roam free during the day on the rescue’s rural 20-acre (8-hectare) property, a sprawling mix of meadows and thick forest spotted with ponds and a nearby river.

Woodside and Priest teach by example. The raccoons’ eyes light up when the…