Some people think that if a raccoon is out in the daylight that they are sick with distemper or rabies. And that may be the occasional case. But the majority of the cases are that the raccoons are hungry if they are seen in the day.

There’s a couple reasons:

1) Summer has longer days and less night. This means that they have more time to forage in the darker winters.

2) It’s baby raccoon season in the summer and the mothers are hungry and need more to eat because they are breast feeding so venture out more often.

3) There may be external environmental factors like tides. Charleston tides change ~ 5 feet between low and high tide and they change ~ 6 hours. Raccoons are marsh hunters but only in low tides so they may come earlier in the evening or leave later in the morning to maximize eating opportunities. June 2025