• Robbie the Raccoon in Tootie’s Backyard.

Robbie

the Common Raccoon

Robbie is a common raccoon who lives in Tootie’s backyard year-round.

Robbie is a nocturnal animal, meaning he mostly comes around after dark when Tootie and Yoshi are inside.

You can identify Robbie by his fluffy, ringed tail and the black mask around his eyes.

Robbie’s Home

Robbie lives in a large nest made of dried leaves that he stole from Scott.

His nest is high in a tree at the edge of Tootie’s backyard. He spends most of the day in the nest resting and comes out at night, although Kevin and his flock occasionally wake him up. When that happens, Robbie climbs down and meanders around the edge of the yard, sniffing for food.

He was born in a tree cavity, along with his four siblings. When they were eight weeks old, they moved from the tree cavity to another tree cavity where they lived until Robbie and his siblings left home the following autumn.

Because Robbie is a mammal, his mom fed him milk until she weaned him, or made him start eating solid food, at three months.

What types of nests have you seen in your yard?

Robbie’s Hobbies

Robbie has a bad reputation because he gets caught stealing a lot. He takes food from the neighborhood cats. Once he even took leaves from a large black bag at the curb after Tootie and Yoshi’s people cleaned their yard.

Robbie is good at a lot of other things, too. He likes to climb and swim and is really good at both. He likes to hang out near the water.

Because he’s nocturnal and out more often at night than during the day – especially during the summer, Tootie and Yoshi don’t get to hang out with Robbie much. They mostly see him at dusk or dawn.

When Robbie was still with his raccoon family, their group was called a nursery. Robbie is related to Tootie and Yoshi and to bears, but he says Tootie and Yoshi aren’t related to bears like he is.

What hobbies do you have?

Robbie’s Diet

Like many of Tootie and Yoshi’s friends, Robbie is an omnivore, meaning he eats both meat and plants. He’s an opportunistic forager, who will eat cat food left outside. He sometimes digs in the garbage.

His favorite foods are fruits, seeds, nuts, birds’ eggs, and plants. He will hunt for fish and frogs, especially when he’s at the water.

Unlike Tootie and Yoshi’s other friends, Robbie likes to stick his front paws, which he can use like hands, in the water bowl before he eats. When water isn’t available, he’ll slosh his front paws around in the air. He makes this motion because he uses his front paws as sensory organs.

In the autumn, Robbie eats extra food and gains a lot of weight. Then, during the winter, he sleeps more than usual to conserve energy. Robbie doesn’t fully hibernate, though. Mammals in Louisiana don’t hibernate because it doesn’t get cold enough here.

What other animals sleep more during the winter?

Learn more about Robbie.

Activities

Crosswords


1. An animal that eats fruits, vegetables, and meat.
2. Animal that comes out mostly at night.
3. Relative of Robbie's.
4. Group of raccoons.
5. When an animal sleeps during the winter.
6. Something Robbie is good at.
7. Type of forager who will eat anything that's easy to get.
8. Distinctive marking on a raccoon's face.
9. The act of transitioning a mammal from milk to solid food
10. Who Robbie stole his nest from.