Dousing
Captive raccoons often douse their food before eating.
One aspect of raccoon behavior is so well known that it gives the animal
part of its scientific name, Procyon lotor; "lotor" is neo-Latin for "washer
". In the wild, raccoons often dabble for underwater food near the shore-
line. They then often pick up the food item with their front paws to examine
it and rub the item, sometimes to remove unwanted parts. This gives the
appearance of the raccoon "washing" the food. The tactile sensitivity of
raccoons' paws is increased if this rubbing action is performed underwater,
since the water softens the hard layer covering the paws.[125] However, the
behavior observed in captive raccoons in which they carry their food to
water to "wash" or douse it before eating has not been observed in the wild.
[126] Naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, believed that
raccoons do not have adequate saliva production to moisten food thereby
necessitating dousing, but this hypothesis is now considered to be incorrect
.[127] Captive raccoons douse their food more frequently when a watering
hole with a layout similar to a stream is not farther away than 3 m (10 ft).
[128] The widely accepted theory is that dousing in captive raccoons is a
fixed action pattern from the dabbling behavior performed when foraging at
shores for aquatic foods.[129] This is supported by the observation that
aquatic foods are doused more frequently. Cleaning dirty food does not seem
to be a reason for "washing".[128] Experts have cast doubt on the veracity
of observations of wild raccoons dousing food.[130]