Imagine You Are A Raccoon | Raccoon In Chimney

Imagine You Are A Raccoon: Week 3

A weekly series by Brad Gates, B.Sc. Stay tuned each Wednesday for the continuation of this story!

The very next day you instinctively look for a secondary home as a place to escape to, should the attic den site ever become unsafe. Luckily, after a few more nights of searching you come across an uncapped chimney on a building nearby. Clambering down the sooty inside of the chimney reminds you of the hollow tree den site you once occupied in the forest. Moving to this concrete jungle has served you well, especially when you consider the existence of many potential den sites and the availability of food during most of the year. 

As in some of the chimneys you have previously explored, you discover the dried out carcass of a squirrel on top of the fireplace damper. You are not sure how this happens, but if the truth be told, squirrels mistakenly jump into uncapped chimneys in search of nesting sites. Once they fall to the bottom, shear panic sets in as numerous attempts to climb up the smooth chimney walls fail. If their efforts to escape go undetected by the occupants of the building, the squirrels will starve to death within 4 to 6 days.