A furry mammal with a distinctive black mask across its eyes, a striped tail, and a habit of rummaging through garbage.
From Powhatan (Algonquian) language: 'apocoune' or 'aroughcoune,' referring to the animal's hand-like paws. English colonists adapted it to 'raccoon,' and 'racoon' is an alternative spelling.
Native Americans named this animal based on its hands—the Powhatan word meant something like 'scraper' or 'one who scratches'—because raccoons use their paws with such dexterity to manipulate objects!
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