1. A carnivorous mammal with grayish-brown hair, black bands (mask like) crossing its face and with rings of black color on its long bushy tail and is usually active at night: "When Robert was camping in the forest with his Boy Scout group, he noticed a raccoon eating near his tent."

"The next day, Robert read in a book that raccoons not only lived in the forests in North America, where he was with the Boy Scouts, but also in Central America and sometimes they even ate small animals!"

2.Etymology: originally from Virginia Algonquian arahkun, from arahkunem, "he scratches with the hands".