Raccoons can have a litre of between one and seven. While a high number like that is rare it’s also rare for a litre to just be one baby. Normally it’s 3-5 babies in a little. The babies come out of the womb blind and immobile similar to human babies and many of the babies of other native Ontario wildlife. The season of raccoon mating can start as early as February but is generally supposed to start in the very early spring and then continues to the end of the summer. By August, there should not be any more raccoon infants in the attic and all raccoon young that were late born has grown to a size that they can exit with their mother through a one-way door instead of being rescued by a technician from an attic. Female raccoons are mating machines and reach sexual maturity in only one year. This means a raccoon born the year previously is now ready to mate and make more cubs. This makes raccoons a very common animal with a very large population as they can reproduce faster than they get killed. Common ways raccoons die are getting run over, starvation, rabies and attempting to move through an opening that is too small.
When a female raccoon with babies dies the babies are not going to last much longer either. Unless they are grown to a point that they can hunt for their food which often takes months they will starve or be killed by another male raccoon. Male raccoons hunt the babies of other male raccoons in an attempt to improve the survivability of their offspring. This process is very important as it dramatically decreases the number of raccoons that are born every year. If not for their self-destructive tendencies we would all be overrun by thousands of raccoons. However, this process also causes female raccoons to hide in places that are hard for males to find. This results in the occupation of your attic, under your deck, under a shed or even in your garage attic. Getting them out is not easy and forces them to find a new nest. While that should be a reason to let them stay it is a good reason to remove the raccoon and its babies humanely without harming either. This is how the ministry of the environment of Ontario handles humane removal and the various companies that work under it must follow suit.