Toronto Raccoon Activity Index

Raccoons (Procyon lotor) are a prominent feature of Toronto's urban environment, active across all 25 wards year-round. This dataset provides on quarter of painstakingly collected data on raccoon activity, observed at the ward level and summarized in hourly intervals.

Average unit weight is currently trending upward. We are monitoring this.

Columns:

  • datetime + date + hour — hourly records, Jan–Mar 2024, all 25 wards
  • units_observed — number of raccoons spotted
  • bins_compromised — green bins successfully opened
  • raccoon_confidence_level — 1–10 behavioural scale
  • average_unit_weight_kg — trending up, as noted
  • incidents_of_raccoon_human_standoff — with duration in seconds
  • proximity_to_a_patio — boolean, exactly as advertised
  • complaints_logged — because of course

For additional information about Toronto's urban wildlife management programme, please visit toronto.ca/nobusinesslikeraccoonbusiness or contact aprilfools2026@toronto.ca

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Dataset Category Table
Refresh Rate As available
Collection Method
Excerpt We counted raccoons for a few months!
Limitations * Data only available for Q1 of 2024 - they realized they were being watched and we had to go into hiding * Racoons may disagree with their characterization within this data * Successful green bin opening is counted even if nothing yummy was found within the green bin in question * Raccoon confidence level is normalized to mean raccoon confidence, which is ~1.8x average human confidence * Unit count accuracy may contain inaccuracies when counting baby raccoons due to how darn cute they are
Owner Division Information & Technology
Owner Section Enterprise Trash Pandas
Owner Unit Absolute
Owner Email aprilfools2026@toronto.ca
Author Email aprilfools2026@toronto.ca
Maintainer Email aprilfools2026@toronto.ca
Author aprilfools2026@toronto.ca
Civic Issues
Formats CSV
Topics
  • Culture and tourism
  • Environment
  • Parks and recreation
  • Garbage and recycling
Source
Information URL https://torontolife.com/city/proof-toronto-really-raccoon-capital-world/
Image URL
Last Updated 2026-04-01 11:35:49.793632
Is Retired? False
Date Published 2026-04-01 11:35:50.088195