Earlier this week, wildlife veterinarian Dr. Priya Patel and her colleagues at the Cape Wildlife Center in Barnstable, Massachusetts had to deal with something they had never seen before: a raccoon with an arrow sticking out of its face.
But the saga really began several days before then, when an individual in Plymouth, Massachusetts called the Cape Wildlife Center to let them know that they had spotted the injured raccoon. The wildlife center team told the caller to contact the local animal control to apprehend the raccoon, who had no intention of making it easy.
It took animal control around one week to catch the trash panda. Patel, who is also the medical director of the wildlife center, tells Popular Science that she was a “very feisty raccoon,” even while inside of her cage. “So we decided to sedate her right away in the cage so that there was less stress for her, and then we were safe getting her out.”
Once the snoozing raccoon had been removed from the cage, the team realized that whatever was sticking out of her face was also sticking out the back of her head. Patel and her colleagues quickly took X-ray images, which revealed the obvious shape of an arrow—possibly a mini crossbow arrow. In her misfortune, the feisty raccoon was actually incredibly lucky. The arrow hadn’t touched her eye or sinus cavity, nor had it fractured her skull.
“We were able to quickly assess that there was no major structural damage to her, and then we were able to remove it,” Patel explains. “And so we cleaned the wound and put some antibiotic ointment on it and started her on antibiotics and paint meds. She just got really lucky, and we were just grateful to Plymouth animal control for not giving up on trying to catch her.”
The raccoon is doing well, and will stay at the wildlife center until the wound heals properly and she completes a course of antibiotics. The team then expects to return her to the wild.
In Massachusetts, it is legal to hunt raccoons. In 2026, the raccoon and opossum hunting season was from January 1 to January 31, and from October 2026 through the end of the year.
