Registered: Jul 2008
Location: BOONEVILLE KY.
Posts: 931

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Last edited by Carl Fox on 06-10-2014 at 09:14 PM

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Registered: Sep 2007
Location: Kentucky
Posts: 2713

I dont have any scientific proof to back it up but like you I have heard it ever since I started hunting. Heard they could stay up in the trees or dens for a week or two at a time without coming down.

Found this website and it says that coons cant hibernate but can sleep for several days at a time in cold weather.

http://www.bear-tracker.com/coon.html

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Last edited by Virgil on 08-19-2009 at 04:08 PM

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Coons do semi-hibernate. The term is "torpor". Their breathing and heartrate slow down but not as much as with true hibernation. They wake up periodically and go out but come back go back to bed. 2 weeks isn't out of the ordinary in the far north.

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Registered: Aug 2005
Location: BROWNSTOWN, IN
Posts: 3519

WHEN COON DO LAY UP FOR DAYS AND SLEEP, THEY SUCK ON ONE OF THERE FEET WHILE SLEEPING. SO, HAS ANYONE ELSE BEEN TOLD THIS ? IS IT TRUE OR NOT ? I AM ASKING ALL OF YOU.
I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO THINK WHEN I HEARD THIS, AND I KNOW YOU HAVE TO BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU HEAR AT A COONHUNTER GATHERING. LOL

BRAD E. ISAACS

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Registered: Aug 2007
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 439

Our coons will lay-up for long stretches of time during the winter. They seem to hate the deep powder snow, they`ll move once there`s a crust even when it`s cold but a couple feet of soft powder will keep them in.

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Pete Rhines

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Central Michigan
Posts: 6544

What Jim said.

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Larry Atherton

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I live in northern Indiana and I think it is a rare occasion for coons in this area to layup more than a few days at a time.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Central Michigan
Posts: 6544

I have known specific den trees that I was easily able to monitor due to reoccurring snow. It isn't unusually to have coons den up for up to 2-3 week periods in my neck of the woods.

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Larry Atherton

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Registered: Feb 2006
Location: Western Pa
Posts: 2106

Larry, PEOPLE den up for 2 to 3 weeks at a time in your neck of the woods!!

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: tioga co.pa
Posts: 1728

coon will lay in durins a snow/ice storm and a few days after.......cepting rutting season......we also hunt sunny afternoons with succes on the sunside os the mtn...

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Registered: Sep 2006
Location: Ohio
Posts: 230

Coons do not hibernate, they can layup and suck their toes, whatever, but do not go into a true hibernation. I got this from DNR because it is a great question and I assumed the coons were hibernating here on those cold clear nights.

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Ok, try this. Google "raccoons hibernation"

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Registered: Feb 2006
Location: Western Pa
Posts: 2106

Coons don't hibernate, but, their respiration and heartrate slows while they sleep for days...... I guess we're beating the term "hibernate vs. semi-hibernate" Six of one thing.......a half dozen of the other.... Ok, how 'bout this? Do coons stay up or do they come down when it gets so cold snot freezes in your nose?

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Los Angeles, MN
Posts: 4236

Ill tell you what, It gets pretty dang cold here in MN.

If it gets cold (-5 or lower) you wont see a coon track in the snow, unless its after mid Jan and they start rutting, then they may run no matter how cold it is.

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Registered: Jul 2006
Location: Turtle Mountains, ND
Posts: 1023

Up on the Manitoba border where I hunt I snowshoe in the middle of winter and look for coon tracks in the deep, powder snow. I've yet to see any coon tracks in those conditions which can extend for several weeks to a couple months. If it warms and holds above freezing and the deep snow firms, they'll run but otherwise not.

It amazes me how they make it through the winter unless they are designed for long periods of inactivity. The coons here also den primarily in the ground. I suppose that allows them to get below the frost line where it's a little warmer, and the coons are also very big here. Body mass equals the ability to pile on large amounts of fat and increases thermal efficiency. When my dog trees a near starved coon in the late winter, it usually is a kitten born the prior summer. The adult coons are thin as rails and all legs at that time but seem healthy and will take your dog for a run through the woods. Spring, before the leaves, is my favorite time to coon hunt.

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Largest coon in the north & smaller as ya go south. Required size for survival lose' it's importance in the warmer climate's where they don't need to shiver for long period's of time. Why they have huge bodied deer in the 'nort & miniature version's in the south. Same thing only different.

I am really fond of huntin during the cold frigid snow covered month's when the dog's gotta bust a trail to just find a coon track but like has been stated they don't move in powder condition's very often.

Along my lane we have bluff's that are chuckin full of coon with a creek between them where the lane narrow's. If they move in the snow much there will be track's to the water. Been time's when we ain't seen a track in several week's. Not "TRUE" hibernation but Ma Nature's way of keepin them alive or most of them anyway's.

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Registered: Jun 2006
Location: Platteville, Wi
Posts: 5676

bergemans rule??? thats why we are so well conditioned for the hard winters TT!!LOL

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quote:

---

Originally posted by Dan Dogs
bergemans rule??? thats why we are so well conditioned for the hard winters TT!!LOL

---

That's what I alway's "Figured"....LOL!! Prepin for winter as I type!

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Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Kentucky
Posts: 828

I hunt coons in the ground with my terriers. Around here, coons will lay up in cold weather, usually more than one in a den in the ground. And they are not asleep when one of my terriers goes in there with them. But I've had a terrier drag a sleeping groundhog out of the ground in January, and it didn't wake up. We tucked him back in the hole. :-)

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