Does a raccoon really wash its food, and how does it climb down a tree headfirst? These raccoon trivia questions fill five rounds, from a long-tailed bear to the raccoons of Kassel.
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Five rounds, from aroughcun to the Edersee
Names and family tree translates mapache, raton laveur and Procyon. Mask, paws and senses weighs the underfur and finds whiskers above the claws. Food, dousing and wits settles the washing question and hands a raccoon thirteen locks. Dens, kits and seasons explains why beech woods stay empty. Cities and far countries goes from Cincinnati to Japan.
For a campfire or a backyard that gets visitors
Pick one of the four answers and the card reveals the right one, a short reason and the article behind it. Ten questions make a set. With Scored round switched on, twenty answers are collected first and marked together.
Questions and answers
Do raccoons really wash their food?
Not to clean it. Wild raccoons dabble for food under water, then rub and examine it with their paws, which looks like washing. Carrying food to water to douse it has been seen only in captive raccoons.
Are raccoons related to bears?
Linnaeus placed the raccoon with the bears, in the genus Ursus. Since 1780 it has had a genus of its own, Procyon, in the procyonid family, and molecular analysis indicates a closer relationship to bears than to weasels.
How smart are raccoons?
Studies show that raccoons can remember the solution to a task for at least three years. In a 1908 study they worked out 11 complex locks out of 13, each in under ten tries.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 3, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article Raccoon, linked under every question. Hunting and population figures, raccoon as food, diseases, and advice on pets or removal are left out.
A genetic analysis of 2006 found raccoons most closely related to which animals?Answer: Ringtails. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
The French name for the raccoon, raton laveur, means what?Answer: Washing rat. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
The genus name Procyon can be translated in which way?Answer: Before the dog. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Linnaeus first called the raccoon Ursus cauda elongata. What does that mean?Answer: Long-tailed bear. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Members of whose expedition were the first Europeans to leave a written record of the raccoon?Answer: Christopher Columbus. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
On which continent did the first known members of the raccoon family live, about 25 million years ago?Answer: Europe. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
On whose list of Powhatan words was the raccoon recorded as aroughcun?Answer: John Smith. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
The raccoon is the largest member of which family?Answer: The procyonids. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
The raccoon's species name, lotor, is Latin for what?Answer: Washer. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
What is the raccoon called in Spanish?Answer: Mapache. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
What is the scientific name of the raccoon?Answer: Procyon lotor. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Which island raccoon, weighing only 3 to 4 kilograms, is still regarded as a separate species?Answer: The Cozumel raccoon. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Which nickname have raccoons earned by breaking into food waste bins in cities?Answer: Trash panda. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Which other raccoon species shares Panama with the common raccoon?Answer: The crab-eating raccoon. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Who placed the raccoon in its own genus, Procyon, in 1780?Answer: Gottlieb Conrad Christian Storr. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Mask, paws and senses 18
A raccoon's hearing can pick up noises as quiet as those made by which animals underground?Answer: Earthworms. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
About how much of a raccoon's coat is dense underfur?Answer: Almost 90 percent. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
About how much of the sensory area of a raccoon's cerebral cortex is given over to touch?Answer: Almost two-thirds. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
At the start of winter, how much can a raccoon weigh compared with spring?Answer: Twice as much. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Besides marking the face, what may a raccoon's dark mask do?Answer: Reduce glare and help night vision. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
For how long can a swimming raccoon stay in the water?Answer: For several hours. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
How does a raccoon manage to climb down a tree headfirst?Answer: It rotates its hind feet to point backward. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
How many teeth does a raccoon have?Answer: 40. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Raccoons are thought to be color blind or nearly so. Which color of light are their eyes well adapted to sense?Answer: Green. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Raccoons have a dual cooling system. What are its two parts?Answer: Sweating and panting. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
What do a raccoon's nimble front paws lack?Answer: An opposable thumb. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
What does the call of a newborn raccoon sound like?Answer: The twittering of a bird. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
What happens to the thin horny layer on a raccoon's front paws when it gets wet?Answer: It becomes pliable. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
What is the patch of black fur around a raccoon's eyes said to look like?Answer: A bandit's mask. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
What lets a raccoon identify an object before its paw touches it?Answer: Whiskers above its claws. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
What pattern marks a raccoon's tail?Answer: Light and dark rings. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Where do the smallest raccoons live?Answer: Southern Florida. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Which is the most important sense for a raccoon?Answer: Touch. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Food, dousing and wits 12
A study of 1908 judged the raccoon's learning speed equal to that of which animals?Answer: Rhesus macaques. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Carrying food to water to douse it before eating has been seen only in which raccoons?Answer: Captive ones. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Contrary to popular belief, which prey does a raccoon prefer?Answer: Easy catches such as crayfish and insects. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
For how long can a raccoon remember the solution to a task?Answer: At least three years. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
In a study of 1908, raccoons opened 11 of 13 of what in fewer than ten tries?Answer: Complex locks. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
What is a wild raccoon doing at the shoreline when it seems to wash its food?Answer: Rubbing and examining it with its paws. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
What makes up the largest share, about 40 percent, of a raccoon's diet?Answer: Invertebrates. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Which farm crop is particularly popular with raccoons?Answer: Sweet corn in its milk stage. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Which foods does a raccoon prefer in late summer and autumn, as it builds up fat for winter?Answer: Fruits and nuts. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Which naturalist held, wrongly, that raccoons douse their food because they lack saliva?Answer: The Comte de Buffon. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Which of these can even an inexperienced raccoon do with its forelimbs?Answer: Unscrew a jar. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
The zoologist Clinton Hart Merriam wrote that the raccoon's cunning, in certain directions, surpasses that of which animal?Answer: The fox. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Dens, kits and seasons 10
Captive raccoons have lived for more than 20 years. What is the life expectancy of a wild one?Answer: 1.8 to 3.1 years. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
How many young are typical of a raccoon litter?Answer: Two to five. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
In which season does a mother raccoon's group of young split up?Answer: Fall. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Unrelated male raccoons often form loose groups of up to how many?Answer: Four. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
What can already be seen on a newborn raccoon kit?Answer: Its mask. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
What do raccoons in the north do while a lasting snow cover makes food hard to find?Answer: Go into a winter rest. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Which bird is among the raccoon's most important natural predators?Answer: The great horned owl. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Which part does a male raccoon play in raising the young?Answer: None. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Which sleeping, winter and litter dens do raccoons prefer?Answer: Tree hollows and rock crevices. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Why do raccoons avoid areas thick with beech trees?Answer: Beech bark is too smooth to climb. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Cities and far countries 13
At which mound site in Oklahoma was the carved shell known as the Raccoon Priests Gorget found?Answer: The Spiro Mounds. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
At which reservoir in Hesse were two pairs of pet raccoons set free in April 1934?Answer: The Edersee. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
By 2008 raccoons were living wild in how many of Japan's 47 prefectures?Answer: All 47. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
In a suburb of which city were the first urban raccoons recorded, in the 1920s?Answer: Cincinnati. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
In the 1920s, a coat of raccoon fur was a status symbol among which group?Answer: College students. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Raccoons are common through North America from Canada south to which country?Answer: Panama. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Raccoons released in the Soviet Union took hold in the south of Belarus and in which other republic?Answer: Azerbaijan. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Rock carvings of raccoon tracks were found at Lewis Canyon in which state?Answer: Texas. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
What are the original habitats of the raccoon?Answer: Deciduous and mixed forests. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Which country hosts the largest raccoon population outside North America?Answer: Germany. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Which German city has had Europe's first and densest big-city population of raccoons since the 1960s?Answer: Kassel. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Which island was formerly the northernmost limit of the raccoon's range?Answer: Vancouver Island. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
Which Sioux leader took his name from a raccoon skin hat with the tail attached?Answer: Spotted Tail. Source: Wikipedia: Raccoon
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Questions and wrong choices are our own. Each explanation restates, in our own sentences, a fact from the English Wikipedia article named and linked beside the question (https://en.wikipedia.org, text under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license): Raccoon. On October 3, 2026 the passage that states each fact was read in that article before the question was kept. Left out on purpose: population and hunting figures, pelt prices, raccoon as food, the diseases and parasites section, advice on pets, feeding and removal, laws on keeping raccoons, the offensive sense of the short form of the name, stories of living Native American traditions, and television and film titles. Levels are our estimate: easy is fair for any table, medium suits people who know the animal, hard will stump most tables. Unofficial, and not advice on keeping, feeding or approaching an animal. Licence: own work