Invasion of urbanite raccoons: Toronto grapples with wild residents

He was spotted in the most hipster of locales: a vinyl record store in downtown Toronto.

But our friend bore none of the other markings of today’s urbanites like, say, a knitted cap in summer or an oat-milk latte in hand. In fact “he” (or “she”) was a black-masked raccoon, discovered next to a Willie Nelson sleeve in the storefront of Kops Records on Queen Street in June.

For an animal seeking its place in the urban landscape, it was just another day. But the presence of wildlife in cities has engendered questions