At this time of the year, mother raccoons are busy suckling their young in nests hidden away from prying eyes. The raccoon (Procyon lotor) is a medium-sized mammal native to North America. The photographs shown in this post were taken in the process of excluding a somewhat large colony of raccoons from a commercial structure in Denton, Texas (north of the city of Dallas), in April of 2010. Included in the colony were this mother and her five suckling babes, all of whom were ensconced in a dark, secluded nest, deep inside the eaves of the structure. [...]