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Inside the ‘Boot Camp’ Teaching Orphaned Raccoons How to Survive

A Mississippi wildlife rescue teaches orphaned raccoons to climb, hunt, swim, avoid traps, and survive before releasing them back into nature.

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When you think of zoos and aquariums as places where injured wild animals are rehabilitated, sometimes taught basic survival tactics, before being released back into the wild, you’re usually thinking of animals like dolphins or maybe monkeys. But what about baby raccoons who have been separated from their mothers?

That’s when Mississippi’s Woodside Wildlife Rescue swoops in, and its workers become drill sergeants as they move squadrons of baby raccoons through obstacle courses, teaching them the basics that their mother never got the chance to.

As the Associated Press reported, Woodside Wildlife Rescue was founded in 2009 by former........

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