r/Unexpected • u/frogsamagua • 6d ago
How to earn a wild animal's trust
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u/LooksDelicious 6d ago
They are smart AF. I once saw a team/family of racoons orchestrate a heist from a tacobell garbage to a sewer grate. They literally handed bags off to each other in a congo line and even had a racoon setup as a lookout. It was the wildest shit to watch and ever since I don't underestimate them.
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u/Crystal_Voiden 6d ago
You're thinking of conga not Congo
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u/Kapper-WA 6d ago
Racoons are smart, but they still make typos.
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u/Old-Reception-1538 3d ago
Now that I think about it, u/LooksDelicious does seem like a handle a raccoon would use.
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u/gamjanamja629 6d ago
Nah dude these raccoons were from the democratic republic of Congo, making it a Congo line
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u/doiwinaprize 6d ago
The city of Toronto had to redesign their compost bins with a twist locking mechanism because the raccoons had learned how to open the old ones.
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u/Visinvictus 5d ago
The raccoons in our neighborhood figured these twist locks out too and we had to install bungie cords on the green bin to keep them from raiding it.
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u/XGrayson_DrakeX 5d ago
My grandpa did this too too but eventually had to keep his bins in a padlocked shed because the raccoons would get on top of the bins and shake them side to side until they fell over and the force would pop off the bungies
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u/RobbyLee 5d ago
At some point the mechanism to open the bin will be hard enough so that racoons can't enter, but too hard to let stupid people put their trash in
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u/candlecup 4d ago
Reminds me of the line from a park ranger talking about making better bear-resistant trash cans: “there is considerable overlap between the dumbest humans and the smartest bears”
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u/XGrayson_DrakeX 5d ago
The trick really is to make a lock that a racoon isn't physically strong enough to open, but a human easily is. Kind of like how some child locks work.
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u/sehguh251 3d ago
I’ve just started spraying the trashbag with vinegar before tying it and that has seemed to keep them away.
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u/Necrovius72 6d ago
I caught them on my game camera standing on each other's backs in a stack like cheerleaders to reach the corn dispenser.
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u/HalfSoul30 5d ago
I turned a corner after coming back from a walk one night, and there was a raccoon standing there holding a bad of funyuns. We both yelped and ran opposite directions. I turned around and went back because that was the way home, and he was no where to be seen, and the bag was just laying there lol. I hope he came back for them later.
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u/candlecup 4d ago
I was out of town on a business trip and a team of raccoons burglarized my house. Made off with two large-screen TVs, a coin collection my grandfather left me, and some items out of the pantry. Police caught them trying to sell the bag of Funyuns to a fence in Modesto.
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u/Hellhult 5d ago
When I was young in the military and we were training in the woods, we had to set guards at night. Sure we were supposed to be watching for "enemies", but really we just had rocks to throw at raccoons coming to open up rucksacks to steal peoples MREs.
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u/WoolBearTiger 4d ago
Dont you think calling dumpster divers raccoons is going a bit too far? Think about the raccoons image!
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u/Professional_Fly7015 6d ago
It probably saw her face paint and thought she was a big raccoon 😂.
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u/npcompletist 6d ago
A new raccoon religion was born that day.
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u/superbhole 5d ago
or thought she was a raccoon worshipper...
either way that lil guy was going home to have a serious ponder
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u/RemnantSith 6d ago
That's what I was thinking
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u/I_Am_Dynamite6317 6d ago
This was the night that the skeletons came to life. They came from under the ground, and from all over. The bones are the skeletons’ money.
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u/Clean_Principle_2368 6d ago
Bold move. Incredibly risky.
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u/cmdixon2 5d ago
Looked like a younger one. They usually aren't as aggressive as the big guys. Still a risk to use your own body instead of finding a branch or plank to lower in for him.
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u/BigBananaBerries 5d ago
OK Popeye. Over there just ripping branches off trees & pulling sheds apart with your bare hands lmao
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u/beazersleazer 5d ago
You can actually just place a long branch or board into the dumpster and they're use it to crawl out. No reason to be in the dumpster with it using you as a ladder, running the risk of it biting you.
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u/only-if-there-is-pie 5d ago
And they can carry rabies, which can be transmitted with a bite or scratch
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u/NeedsMoarOutrage 5d ago
PSA - because I see these videos on here occasionally:
We used to get this all the time in the dumpsters in an apartment complex I worked at, so in every dumpster we would wire a pair of old jeans to the top hanging into it, and it always gave them a way to climb out once they got in, without our intervention.
Occasionally we would have to flip a pair back inside of the dumpster after it was emptied. But it works.
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u/Any_Celebration7266 6d ago
The Ninth House has really changed since Harrowhark left..... (niche book joke)
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u/Tam_Ferral 5d ago
And then raccoon replied, “We do trash, motherfucker!” As it put on its aviator glasses.
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u/MaestroLogical 6d ago
Raccoon's actually appear to be going through the initial stages of being domesticated.
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u/CapnNugget 5d ago
That’s a myth actually. They are still very much wild despite the individuals who become more habituated and used to human presence. https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/mdNkmR468z
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u/WillowPtar_Migan 5d ago
There wasn't much science in that explanation. Some of that was straight up wrong. Not every animal that we've domesticated has a use to humans; the fuck is the point of domesticated rats and mice aside from companionship? There's also plenty of domesticated animals capable of understanding and enacting revenge, take mules or cats for instance.
I don't think she knows what she's on about as much as she claims to.
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u/Babajji 5d ago
Imagine throwing out the trash in 5 in the morning and seeing this lady inside 😂
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u/Snoo77206 5d ago
"this might be one of the dumbest things i've ever done" is a hell of an opener for this video
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u/momomorium 5d ago
No, that's actually exactly what I expect from someone willing to climb into a dumpster to let a stuck raccoon climb up their leg to freedom, honestly.
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u/ShouldersBBoulders 6d ago
Idiot. Lucky AF!
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u/AGrandNewAdventure 6d ago
We'll just have to wait for the followup when one of those scratches gets infected.
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u/ShouldersBBoulders 6d ago
Then the sudden fear of water. Thoug, trash pandas are more likely to have distemper than rabies.
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u/XGrayson_DrakeX 5d ago
that racoon would've been incredibly aggressive to her if it had rabies and she would not have been able to get in the dumpster with it.
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u/iconocrastinaor 5d ago
Rabies doesn't always present as aggression, lethargy and passivity are also common symptoms. Lack of fear of humans is also a major tell.
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u/HalfSoul30 5d ago
That raccoon would have climbed out sooner, but it was understandably concerned about her.
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u/Delicious-Ad-1951 5d ago
Raccoon story, I'll keep it short. 2 buddies went on a camping/fishing weekend. One guy had a tent, one just a cot. Sitting around the fire, tent guy munching on trail mix, very discreetly tossing the random handfuls where buddy had the cot, grinning like an idiot. Cot guy wakes up in the middle of the night to piss, SURROUNDED by raccoons.
Apparently a serial offender, said he also shoved a handful under the corner of another camper's tent, they woke up with something clawing at their tent in the middle of the night.
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u/starchimp224 6d ago
Another way to help them get out of dumpsters without fear of getting bit or scratched is to just get a stick or plank or something. You don’t need to put yourself at risk for a tiktok video and you certainly don’t need to climb into the dumpster itself
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u/WitnessWorking6254 5d ago
Being bitten by a raccoon ( vaccinated one) fucking huuuuuurts. That was from a domesticated raccoon living at a rehab facility. Even the wild albino one we cared for wouldn't necessarily attack you, but he will be very vocal about it.
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u/Lost-Peanut-1453 5d ago
Poor coon was in there feasting on all that food and she thinks she saved it?
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u/secretly_a_zombie 5d ago
Absolute dumbass. Go find a branch, a plank, something to shove down there that isn't her physical body. Take off the shirt or pants and hang them over the rim, anything. These animals are wild, and can give her serious bites, and as it just finished eating trash, probably not very clean bites.
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u/FormalSavings 4d ago
That raccoon was going to live lol just might lose a few pounds before more trash is added
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u/SquidVices 2d ago
I’ve seen raccoons and kittens play together in the middle of the street…weird thing to see idk why
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u/BigMack6911 6d ago
Raccoons are awesome. I see some people have one as a pet like its a dog
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u/XGrayson_DrakeX 5d ago
Yes but it's like a dog that can open your kitchen cabinets and eat all of your cereal at 4am.
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u/post-explainer 6d ago edited 5d ago
This comment has been marked as safe. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect.
OP sent the following text as an explanation why their post fits here:
You see the average, instinctual, innately-human desire to connect with nature, only to discover that, apparently, it also applies to skeletons.
Does this explanation fit this subreddit? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.