r/MadeMeSmile • u/reb6 • 11h ago
ANIMALS Two good Samaritans on paddleboards rescued a stranded raccoon from raging floodwaters in Austin, Texas
This is so sweet!
740
u/BRAX7ON 10h ago
Look at Noah’s friggin Ark ova here
68
23
1
u/dunce_charming 1h ago
I was waiting for this to turn into a modern retelling of "The Frog and the scorpion"
988
u/Gainztrader235 10h ago
It’s fascinating how a wild animal can go from, “This person is helping me,” to, “I trust this person enough to curl up right beside them.” The ability to build that kind of trust across species is pretty incredible.
737
u/GardenGnomeOfEden 10h ago
And the paddle boarder's trust to have a wild raccoon about 1 inch from his crotch
371
u/Economy_Yogurt_8037 10h ago
Seriously! He’s clearly terrified and docile, but that’s still a wild animal who can fuck. you. up.
Having said that: I am team save the raccoon
65
u/K-Bizzle91 8h ago
Raccoons are pretty intelligent, no? People have "domesticated" them before, and it's probably exhausted. The chances of it attacking the kid are pretty low.
96
18
u/Strict_Weather9063 7h ago
Depends on how stressed it is, and it was pretty stressed but a hell of a lot more relaxed once it was in the board looking for a dry spot. Yes they are damn smart, they will break into things with simple locks.
2
u/Economy_Yogurt_8037 2h ago
I’m with you it seems way too terrified to attack. I’m just saying raccoons are actually way more dangerous to people than many realize because they’re small. They’re really fast and angry when attacking
3
u/venom121212 39m ago
The way I have my screen sized down at work makes your sentence cut off right at "but that's still a wild animal who can fuck."
•
1
95
u/HeyHo_LetsThrowRA 10h ago
I think it's probably more exhaustion after swimming/treading water for so long. Like - omg i can just stop moving for just a seco--🥱😴
56
u/TheAserghui 9h ago
Yup, it's the "okay, well this is better than dying and you didn't try to kill me so I'm going to take a break, play nice, and rest before I have to run away if you become hostile" stance
69
106
u/herpderp411 9h ago
I firmly believe all animals are way more intelligent than we as humans believe them to be, both emotionally and mentally. We tend to be blinded by our own hubris.
19
u/ButterBandit3 9h ago
I would love to believe this to be true but unfortunately I don't think they are. Their brains are tiny (most of them) and they run on pure instinct. Survival.
I do think they know well enough who's a species that they have to worry about and that they don't -- humans are probably tricky for most wild animals. In this instance I think he was just scared an exhausted - this was his only option and when they got to land boom he ran.
You ever see the people who rescue squirrels when they get stuck in the pool for hours? The human will be there for hours with them getting them warm and letting them sleep and when they wake up? Boom they run off.
22
u/Electro522 8h ago
There's varying degrees of intelligence, and emotional intelligence is exceptionally rare.
Raccoons are, I think, somewhere in the top 50 of most intelligent animals, and smarter than a lot of dogs even, but they do lack social and emotional intelligence. Packs of raccoons do exist, but there's nothing special to that pack. Instead, it's more of just a beneficial arrangement to find more food (oh, that raccoon over there is munching on some berries. I bet I can find some too if I go over there as well)
Compare that to, say, orcas who actively grieve for lost pod members, ESPECIALLY if it's a mother that happens to have lost her calf. You're not going to see a raccoon depressed because they notice one less raccoon walking around.
So, in this situation, the raccoon could reason that it was in a relatively safer position than being in the water. But it couldn't figure out that the guys helping it weren't a threat at all, hence why it still looked a little freaked out. And once it reached solid ground, gone.
12
u/unibeau 7h ago
The old studies that were about animal intelligence from the very early 2000's were quite a bit off base.
Animals do have a reason to fear us, which is that we are considerably larger, louder and the dominant species that will often run them off. Not to mention, they live out in the wild where those instincts of "survival" tend to keep them alive.
But they are capable of emotion and higher intelligence. Though the amount varies by species and individual. To say now that animals are all still lacking emotion simply because they are basing their survival based lives off of survival instincts is rather shortsighted.
The reality is that they don't often have enough time to foster deep emotional bonds and higher intelligence like many domesticated animals do. Because they are fighting for survival. But they are in fact intelligent.
Lets take a few random examples. Elephants? Well thats low hanging fruit. Another comment said orcas and I'll expand by saying almost every other species of whale and dolphin.
Well shoot. Thats a lot of animals. Many with languages and cultures and emotions. But, that may not be a great example. But perhaps we could step away from mammals.
Octopus. They will break free from captivity when they are bored and not provided with enough enrichment. Hell. Wouldn't you get stir crazy?
Or perhaps rats, being used as near 1-1 trials before most medications and other experiments are pushed to human experimentation, since they too crave social interaction and group settings and their lifespan drastically decreases without it. Much like humans.
TLDR: Humans are animals too.
5
1
u/ButterBandit3 1h ago
There are clearly smarter animals like chimps elephants dolphins whales BUT (and I think this the problem with reddit) where everyone wants to prove someone wrong. I'm making more of a blanket statement when there are over a million species on the planet. Capable of emotion? 100% look at dogs.
We've all seen the videos of chimps solving puzzles to get snacks, orcas coordinate attacks to knock seals off of ice, elephants hunt down people who did them wrong years later.
Ultimately I was just saying I don't believe they are smarter than we think - just as smart as we think.
•
u/AnarchyArcher 5m ago
It’s something about how humans are a threat but animals can recognize when we don’t fit their expected behavior of attacking/hurting them. I’ve heard people phrase it as ‘defusing the fight or flight response’, which I’m not certain of the validity of, but it seems like a better description of why so many animals act like this when helped by humans. Maybe not initially, but once they can see we aren’t trying to hurt them.
1
1
12
u/ChefArtorias 9h ago
While it's not the wild ones I've interacted with closely, raccoons are surprisingly friendly and sociable. I've met a few that were pets with collars. Wouldn't be surprised if they were domesticated in the near future.
13
u/waffleslaw 8h ago
There are scientific studies showing that they are actively domesticating themselves. Like cats did.
3
u/Serious-Bass5356 8h ago
if there was any chance that raccoons could be domesticated the Native Americans would have done it thousands of years ago.
3
u/imrzzz 5h ago
Why would they? (Honest question, not picking a fight).
Wondering what's the benefit to humans of domesticating an animal unless for companionship, which most/all native Americans already had through their social structures
4
u/EconomyDoctor3287 3h ago
Most of the animals we domesticated were for helping out.
Dog's were useful as hunting companions, for scaring off wildlife and for alerting against intrusions from strangers and wildlife. Cats were useful for helping control rodent population once humans started agriculture and had to create grain stockpiles.
2
3
3
u/No_Pudding2028 3h ago
He wasn’t necessarily looking to curl up with the person more looking for somewhere to get out of the rain tired of getting rained on.. That’s why he went underneath the guys legs, Looking for somewhere to get out of the rain.. 😆
3
u/Smokinoutloud 9h ago
Trust is all we have and then when proven comes love/peace. It’s the value in the time we have that truly matters before life is over.
1
u/Ok_Dog_4059 9h ago
Like not only thank god you are here with a floatation device but you are warm can I just ride here and rest a couple.
It took some nerves to see if it was being friendly or not but sure worked out well.
0
u/Reasonable_Pen_3061 7h ago
Survival of the fittest: Animals are stay close to humans like here have a higher chance of survival. What is even crazier is that there is an ongoing trend that racoons are starting to look cuter, because that makes it more likely that humans will tolerate and even feed them.
351
u/BabyFishmouthTalk 10h ago
Respect for not petting, feeding, soothing or taking home. 🏆
68
3
u/Illustrious-Toe-570 1h ago
Why not pet it?
9
u/st-shenanigans 45m ago
It's dangerous to teach animals that humans are friendly because some humans are NOT friendly and will hurt the animal, and some animals will become aggressive if they don't get what they're expecting the human to give.
•
171
140
u/crestedgeckovivi 10h ago
Seriously super cute racoon.. And that was really nice of them to go out there and help it.
14
u/Triggered-cupcake 9h ago
Same, still super sketchy with it being that scared and disoriented. Guy with it right by his sack definitely has a full sack
7
65
u/Turd_Nerd_Bird 10h ago
The last place I'd want a scared wild animal is under my crotch lol.
36
u/PensiveObservor 10h ago
It is looking for a place to hide, and recognizes the human is not a threat or it would already have attacked. It will not be aggressive. People need to understand animals' cognitive processes and intelligence. They are mammals. They are thinking and making decisions based on circumstances. This raccoon has found a friend in the storm.
9
56
20
19
37
u/MadArchitectJMB 9h ago
Happy to see it wasn't my boi jimothy
5
5
u/Inline_skates 5h ago
If it crawled out of the water and it was Jimothy, I would have lost my mind. I love that little weirdo
29
30
u/iupvotefood 10h ago
I'm sure the racoon I would try to help would have rabies. So cute though
2
u/eclectic-up-north 5h ago
It is worse than that. Racoons can spread a parasite with their bites that goes into brains.
2
u/kenedelz 49m ago
If you're referring to raccoon roundworm, I believe it's only spread through the poop! But yeah, despite raccoons having cute hand washing hygiene practices they're still soooo dirty
11
9
7
7
7
3
3
4
u/properwaffles 8h ago
Awwwww, poor little guy! I'd have had a really hard time not leaning into that cuddle for sure.
7
3
3
3
3
3
11
u/Vegetable-Pay2708 10h ago
Bless that paddleboard man for saving the stranded raccoon! Thank you Jesus 🙏🏻
5
2
2
u/eyeswulf 6h ago
It would really make me smile if the people in power could put environmental protections that would prevent and regulate floods, fires, and other natural disasters.
Two paddleboarders can only do so much...
2
3
1
1
1
u/hardly_even_know_er 6h ago
Isn't this just so nice to watch. This is what life should be all about
1
1
1
u/EnvironmentalExit118 1h ago
Blud escaped to Norway with halaand in hangover. Now returning his way back.
1
1
•
u/MrsMaritime 22m ago
I hope these suckers domesticate themselves like cats did because I want one 😂
0
-4
•
u/AutoModerator 11h ago
Welcome to /r/MadeMeSmile. Please make sure you read our rules here.
Specifically, please don't be a jerk. This is not the place for insulting, hateful, or otherwise inappropriate comments. Remember the golden rule: treat others how you want to be treated. We're all here to smile a little - let's keep it that way! Please report inappropriate comments and/or message the moderators.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.