Do coons come out in the daylight?

[massenrg]

This last weekend I went out to the swamp to get some squirrels for the freezer.  While I was sitting there, this huge coon started up a tree about 40 yrds from my blind.  It was about 3 p.m. on a bright, sunny day.   I stood up and he looked right at me; then he resumed his buisness unafraid.  Could this guy have been rabid?  In my years of hunting, I have never come across a full-grown coon in the middle of the day.  I thought they were completely nocturnal?  I'm also suspicious because he wasn't afraid of me.  Any thoughts?

I thought about shooting him and trying to cook him, but on further ponderance I realized I had no idea how to cook a coon; so I just let him climb off into the treetops.  How do they taste?  I've heard their meat is greasy.  What does this mean?  

I did however get four good-sized bushytails; one gray and three fox. :grin:

Texas Squirrel Hunter :gulp:

[rzwieg]

I see coons out during the day sunning themselves, usually in trees. Lately though, I've seen ringtails walking around in picked corn stubble. Not a care in the world! They're pretty overpopulated in So. WI. Come fall, I trap n' shoot a pile (n' don't make much of a dent).

[sjc1]

I have also seen them during the day up in trees getting some sun. Like it was posted earlier, for the most part they are nocturnal but the females will become somewhat more diurnal after they have given birth. Their food requirements are more demanding so they are spending more time looking for food to satisfy this demand on their bodies. Because of this you are more likely to see some females during the day foraging for food.

[Bowhunter57]

massenrg,
Like Splendid Ha Ha was saying....if they're walking around acting like they're disorented, they've got distemper. The best thing you can do is shoot them and burn them.

Distemper gets into the ground and will contaminate other animals, in the area, for a long time. I was walking through a section of woods and found a field mouse curled up and laying on a leaf (looked like he was asleep). The mouse was near some groundhog holes and I thought it was strange that it was just laying there, dead and not torn up or laying stretched out, etc. A couple of weeks later I witnessed a coon walking toward the groundhog holes, but he acted like he was drunk. He was attempting to walk on a log that was 8" in diameter, laying on the ground, but kept falling off. He'd get back up on the log and try to continue to walk the length of the log, but not before falling off several times. This coon was a large male that was about 18 lbs. and as I walked toward him he didn't run or act if I was a concern/ threat. I followed him from a distance of 15 feet for several yards, while he fell over while walking for no apparent reason.

I should've shot him, but while watching his behavior he suddenly took a turn toward a field tile and went inside.

The coon population is way out of control, here in Ohio. You can't drive more than 10 or 15 miles without seeing one hit on the road.

Good hunting, Bowhunter57

[sjc1]

Up in the New England area we had a very high coon population until about 1991. Up until that time about every sick coon you saw had distemper. Around 1991 rabies got into the population and the poulation declined dramatically. Every sick from that point on seemed to have rabies. The population has come back somewhat and it will continue to do so and the rabies virus will knock it back down.