Raccoons Go 'Trick or Treating' in Adorable Video

A woman filmed a nursery of raccoons sitting in front of her door as she jokingly called them trick-or-treaters and handed out marshmallows.

Tia Linde posted the video on TikTok where it received nearly 15 million views and 18,000 comments. The video can be found here.

Feeding Raccoons

Although Linde's video showed a cute response to feeding, experts advise against approaching or giving food to raccoons due to the risk of rabies exposure. Feeding can also lead to overpopulation in the surrounding area.

Rabies, a preventable viral disease that affects the brain and spinal cord of mammals, is often transmitted from the bite of an infected animal.

Raccoons and other rodents are most often infected with rabies although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) figures show that the leading cause of human rabies deaths in the U.S. is bat exposure.

Between 1960 to 2018, there have been 127 human rabies cases reported in the U.S., with 70 percent attributed to bat exposure. A quarter of rabies exposure resulted from dog bites received during international travel.

'Trick or Treat'

In the video captioned "trick or treat for raccoons," Linde shows the group of animals scurrying outside her glass door.

"A couple little trick-or-treaters out here," she said as she opened the door. "It's a little early for Halloween but your costumes are cute."

Linde showed one raccoon approach her hand and grab the marshmallow with its paws as another sat by and watched. As the raccoon walked away, three more approached the front door.

"Trick or treat," she said as each raccoon grabbed their marshmallow and left.

In the background, a lone raccoon sat with its arms outstretched for a treat.

"Aw this little guy is shy," she said as she tossed the raccoon a marshmallow and it placed it in its mouth.

Viewer Reactions

More than 18,000 users commented on the video, with some telling Linde she is "living the life."

"They repeat costumes each year...," one user commented.

"Our raccoon won't eat marshmallows," another commented.

"TRASH PANDAS!!!!!!!!! It's my soul duty as a garbage man to protect the trash pandas!!!" another commented.

"Normalize feeding wild animal, like deers and raccoons," another user commented. "I'm not talking like lions but still."

"You're living my life as a Disney princess...with the trash bandits..." one commenter wrote.

"My backyard once came one mama with 5 different sizes babies at night...It was the cutest. We had a bread party," another commented.

"His wittle arms the whole time," another commented.

"The way I would sob happy tears if this happened to me," another commenter wrote.

Newsweek reached out to Tia Linde for comment.

Other Viral Animals

In Philadelphia, a man filmed the moment he was attacked by a raccoon. The man required medical attention and received a tetanus shot and a rabies vaccine.

In another video shared on the Reddit forum "EyeBleach," a group of raccoons were filmed lining up outside of a drive-thru window to receive chicken nuggets.

Another "trash panda" was recently discovered hanging from a hole in the ceiling after chewing through the roof tiles.