Seeing by touch
Why Do Raccoons Feel Everything With Their Hands?
A raccoon's front paws are so sensitive that touching something tells it more than looking would.
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Step 1 of 5
A raccoon does most of its living at night.
In the dark, eyes are not much use for the small stuff — which shell is empty, whether the fruit is soft. It needs another way to check.
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Step 2 of 5
Its front paws are packed with feeling.
Two thirds of the sensing brain, for two small hands. Nearly two thirds of the brain area that handles the senses is given over to those paws. For comparison, most of a dog's is given to its nose.
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Step 3 of 5
The paws have no thumb, but five long fingers.
It cannot grip the way you do, so it works with two hands together — pinning with one and prising with the other. That is enough to open a great many things.
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Step 4 of 5
Wetting the paws makes the feeling sharper.
Water softens the tough skin and wakes up the nerves underneath. The famous washing is mostly a raccoon turning up its own sense of touch.
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Step 5 of 5
Which is exactly why bins are no obstacle.
A clip it has never seen before is still just an edge, a catch and a hinge — and a raccoon can read all three through its fingertips in the dark.
Raccoons taught this once will still remember the trick three years later.
The short version
A raccoon explores with its hands because its paws sense more detail than its eyes do — especially at night, and especially when wet.
Try it yourself
Put a few coins in a bag and pick out the biggest without looking. Your fingers can do it easily. That is the sense a raccoon leans on for almost everything.