Baby Raccoons at the St. Maarten Zoo

Many, perhaps most, of the recent acquisitions at the zoo have been donated or rescued animals. Currently, there are three baby raccoons that were captured near the port at Pointe Blanche in the southeast part of the Dutch side. The mother was found dead, and some workers brought the babies over to the zoo. They were somewhat sickly and malnourished, but after a vet checkup and deworming they seem to be doing quite well.

The origin of raccoons on the island is a bit of a mystery. They may have originally come as pets from Guadeloupe, or perhaps were brought over even earlier by Amerindians. The first official sighting was in 1957. Sightings in the wild have traditionally been rare, but seem to be increasingly common.

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