Posted by Deneb on June 8, 2005, at 11:25:33
In reply to Interaction between racoon and cat, posted by Deneb on June 7, 2005, at 19:56:38
Ok, I'll stop teasing everyone. :-)
Both the cat and the raccoon where on the same fence.
Both where walking towards each other.
When they got to be about 1.5m from each other, both stopped.
The cat seemed relaxed. The raccoon on the right seemed a little intimidated.
The raccoon cautiously takes a few steps forward, then backs up. The raccoon then, get this...manages to TURN ITSELF AROUND while still on the fence.
The raccoon then BACKS UP slowly and steadily towards the cat!
The cat doesn't seem to know what to make of this.
The cat stays put but withdraws it's body into a semi-sitting position as the raccoon slowly approaches the cat tail first.
The raccoon doesn't slow it's approach towards the cat.
When the two are about ½ a metre from each other, the cat then decides to move to the intersection of fences and walks up along the north fence.
The raccoon now passes the cat!You guys should have seen it! It was very strange! My guess is that the raccoon was afraid of being attacked by the cat. To show that it did not want a confrontation, the raccoon decided to approach in a submissive way...no eye-to-eye contact. The cat didn't know what to make of this, but had to move as a big fat raccoon made it's backwards feat. The cat probably figured that the raccoon was not going to stop backing up so had to move away.
Anyways, that's my take on it. Any better explanations?
poster:Deneb
thread:509339
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20050603/msgs/509624.html