A racoon which has been captivating social media users for two days while scaling a skyscraper in St. Paul, Minnesota, has finally made it to the roof. Onlookers and reporters have been tracking the critter's progress after it was first spotted climbing the UBS Tower on Tuesday morning.
Police said they believed the racoon would have begun its journey up the building on Monday night, and by Tuesday afternoon, it had stopped on a ledge more than 20 stories high. Firefighters left cat food on the top of the 24-story building in the hope of being able to catch the animal safely, and on Wednesday morning, the racoon finally made it.
The racoon was first spotted on a ledge Tuesday morning, just a few stories high.St. Paul Animal Control said it believed it may have been there all night before it started heading skyward. A reporter for Minnesota Public Radio, which has been reporting on the woodland creature's progress, said that the racoon started its climb two days ago. The reporter, Tim Nelson, tweeted that the racoon 'got itself stranded on a ledge...like on an errant mission to raid pigeon nests on the skyway' over 7th Street in St. Paul.
The story of the climbing racoon soon went viral, with social media users tracking the animal's adventure up the tower online with the hashtag #mprraccoon. Many called for emergency services to step in to try to save the racoon, and animal control workers embarked on a mission to try to coax the racoon to the roof using cat food. The workers said yesterday they had hoped to capture the wild animal in a trap and then bring it back to safety on the ground. However, yesterday wildlife experts said that would be a greater chance that the racoon will safely climb down on its own, according to.
Experts say that racoons normally climb structures when they sense they are in trouble. Workers at the building built a makeshift ladder to try to bring the racoon down to safety. This likely spurred the racoon to keep climbing. Most urban wildlife like racoons can last between seven to ten days without food or water. Since racoons are nocturnal animals, it is likely that if it does climb down, it would happen overnight, according to MPR.