September 23, 2026

A Mississippi wildlife rescue is giving baby raccoons a second chance at life as these tiny soldiers report for duty at “raccoon boot camp,” where they’ll learn how to survive on their own in the wild.

Woodside Wildlife Rescue / Credit: Associated Press

At Woodside Wildlife Rescue in Pass Christian, Mississippi, staff members have become substitute mothers and teachers to dozens of raccoon kits who lost their own mothers because of storms, traffic accidents and other traumatic events.

And their lessons go far beyond bottle feeding.

The youngest raccoons spend their first weeks indoors with their human caregivers before eventually moving outside to the rescue’s 20-acre property, where they can begin learning the skills they would normally pick up from their mothers.

The staff hides worms in the dirt so the raccoons can practice digging for food. They open pine cones and acorns to show them where to find seeds, and the kits practice fishing in shallow pools until their little paws get fast enough to catch their own meals.

They even learn how to swim.

The rescue staff takes the raccoons out on the pond in kayaks and encourages them to swim, an especially important skill in hurricane-prone southern Mississippi.

Credit: WLOX-TV

The young raccoons also explore the woods, learning how to move from tree to tree, escape predators and recognize potential dangers.

When the staff makes a special trilling sound that mimics a raccoon warning call, the kits know to run for the trees. A short whistle tells them that the danger has passed.

It may look like a lot of fun, but this training could make the difference between life and death once the raccoons are released.

Woodside Wildlife Rescue was founded by Paula Woodside, a former U.S. merchant mariner, in 2019 after she helped rehabilitate a baby raccoon found aboard her ship.

“When these babies come in, and they’re so desperate, it’s heartbreaking,” said Woodside.

This year alone, the rescue has cared for 76 raccoon kits.

After about six months of rehabilitation, the raccoons are ready for their final step.

Graduation.

The rescue plays “Pomp and Circumstance,” reads the names of the graduating raccoons and then releases them into another part of the rescue's forest-covered property to begin their lives in the wild.

“It’s like watching your children leave home,” said rescue director Raquel Priest. “It’s important to see them prosper and go and be the mischievous creatures they were meant to be.”

And for Woodside, seeing those once-vulnerable babies thriving makes all the hard work worth it.

“In all actuality they shouldn't have survived, and they did, and now they're thriving,” she said. “That's why we do it.”