Many of us enjoy having a bird feeder in our yards to that we can watch the birds come and eat out of it. If you live where there’s a lot of wildlife, you know that more than just birds help themselves to it – I think the squirrels and chipmunks in our backyard eat more than the actual birds do!
Julie, AKA Lavender Julep on Instagram, thought it would be fun to hang a bird feeder in her backyard, but what she didn’t realize is that there was a thief in their midst! Watch as a raccoon tries to pull Julie’s bird feeder up so that he can get some free grub. He’s a pretty diligent thief!
Julie jokes in the video’s caption that they no longer have a bird feeder after the raccoon’s antics! She also says they’re looking for a different place to put the feeder that will ensure ‘thief prevention’.
Commenters had a lot to say about the raccoon’s attempt to score some food from the feeder. @sammrads shared, “I’m not even mad, I’m impressed. Bro deserves a snack.” I couldn’t agree more! @sassy_shernie added, “Not even mad cuz he really was working for it!”
@KatieKeever joked, “I’ve never seen a bird like that before…” and another commenter chimed in with, “That’s a nice raccoon feeder ya got there!” @amwilkins_tx admitted, “That’s the whole reason I would put a bird feeder TBH.” @erhousehome agreed, “I’d immediately buy another just to keep seeing this silly guy!”
Many commenters also appreciated the Mission Impossible theme song playing as the raccoon was at work. Or as @earthbound_films called it, “Mission ImPAWsible!”
Related: Woman Finds Adorable Baby Raccoons ‘Spying on Her’ and It’s Cuteness Overload
Are Raccoons Smart?
As you might have guessed from this video, raccoons are very smart animals. They have amazing memories and demonstrate problem-solving skills that surpass those of cats and dogs.
Ned Hardy shared this example, “In several problem solving experiments conducted, researchers have found that raccoons often solve the test in innovative ways. The classic Aesop Fable test determines cause and effect processing by observing whether animals can learn to displace water in order to obtain food.
For example, a container has a marshmallow floating on water levels too low to access. Researchers demonstrate to the animal participants that dropping stones into the water will increase its level, thus making the treat reachable. Several raccoons observed and replicated, while some simply circumvented the ‘recommended’ method, knocking over the container to grab the marshmallow.”
When you think about it, it’s so cool that the raccoon in Julie’s video figured out that he wouldn’t be able to get to the bird feeder and tried to hoist it up to where he was. After all that work, I hope he got his treat!