Growing up, I had neighbors with pet racoon kits (they did the born free thing when they got older - this is farm country, no problems) and my aunt had pet racoons when she was young. Raccoons are like monkeys. On the one hand they make great pets because they are so smart, on the other hand they make rotton pets because they are so smart. And racoons have thumbs. . .They can open any latch that we can. Even horses can open latches, and that without hands. Imagine North America’s equivalent of a monkey running loose in your house, looking for food. . .

Oh, they have very sharp teeth, too. A playful nip can easily draw blood.

Our cats would sleep in the dog house with the collie, would even sleep on his back. I think animal behavior may be ‘wilder’ than we imagine, especially in a day when so few people live close to nature.

I’d love to have trail cam to put up at the farm pond, 1/2 mile from any road, draws much wildlife. We’ve had beaver (in Iowa!), some larger mustlid of some sort, coyotes, foxes, and scads of deer. It would be interesting to see what was going on when we weren’t around. That laves out the normal pond and marsh critters for this area.

Wild boar are not vegans! I’d rather face wolves than wild boars any day.

Photos like this are inevitably going to lead to speculation. The key to increasing knowledge is letting the speculation lead where it does, and not tamping down any possibility within reason, rather than channeling it around what our limited observations tell us SHOULD be happening there.

There just doesn’t seem to be a particularly good reason for the ‘coon to do that or for the boar to tolerate it.

But there’s the photo. (You know what’s really refreshing about this? I haven’t read ANYBODY tell us it was Photoshopped. )

Given my frustrating-I-know tendency to work the sasquatch into every discussion, there’s a lesson there too. Scientists need to be open to taking in, relaying and - this is most important - ACCEPTING as possibilities any observations their brethren might make out in the field. Am I the only one who wonders how many field biologists have seen things out there that their career prospects and their fear of ridicule told them, successfully, to keep to themselves?

And are happening every day.

Awfully, cool, I’ll admit.

“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio;/Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
—-HAMLET.

Paraphrase from memory.

I will say that raccoons, and indeed many smaller animals are capable of trying to shoo away a larger threat and displaying acts of boldness belying their size. In this situation, the raccoon could have taken a swing at the boar for a variety of reasons, to protect its young, to defend what it sees as its own food stash, etc. This is definitely a possibility for a raccoon, and saying that a raccoon would never do it is simply not true. However, looking carefully at this photo I have to admit that when it comes down to it, there really doesn’t seem to be any evidence of this here. I have several reasons for this.

First off, the creatures DO seem to be calm, and I’ve come to the conclusion that even if this photo was taken towards the beginning of aggression, there would be more of a sign of that one or more of the animals was more perturbed than they seem to be. I now think that Drew S was maybe right. The boar really does seem casually in mid stride and the raccoon actually seems to be balancing itself atop it. There is no sign of a savage lunge or clawing, or raised hackles on the part of the raccoon. If this was a bid to attack the boar, perhaps we’d see more agitation from the boar as well. Hmmmm.

Another thing is the what appears to be a second raccoon in the photo. This animal seems to be continuing foraging as if nothing strange or dangerous is happening. I would think that if the boar was considered enough of a threat for the back riding one to try and attack to begin with, we wouldn’t see that other raccoon acting so seemingly casual. It doesn’t seem to even be paying attention. Hmmm.

As odd as it sounds to me, I have done some re thinking considering the visual evidence here and now accept that there is a likelihood that for whatever reason, that raccoon is actually riding on a wild boar. Maybe it climbed up there for some reason, got no aggressive response from the boar, and continued out of curiosity, who knows? I do know that raccoons are fairly intelligent creatures. Out camping once, some of them got into a pack of Hershey’s Kisses that someone left out and each one was individually unwrapped, with the wrappers all on a little silver pile. They can also work latches on those campsite closets you find. So maybe this raccoon somehow figured out a way to use the boar to its advantage, and the boar just didn’t care.

So I’m thinking that the raccoon attack explanation may not be the case here. I’m sure it does happen, but not apparently here it would seem. What a fascinating and cool little photo we have here. I’m happy DWA (whose opinions I value) and others are taking the time to discuss it.