--- description: Here is a video of a raccoon sitting in a tree across the street from Columbia University on Broadway. title: There's No Reason For This Giant Raccoon to Be Up in a Tree on a New York City Street But Here It Is image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3addf0acc5428de3/69887f978e0601e781464d4c/raccoon2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # There's No Reason For This Giant Raccoon to Be Up in a Tree on a New York City Street But Here It Is  by [Olivia B. Waxman](/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Staff Writer Feb 29, 2016 7:53 PM CUT   by [Olivia B. Waxman](/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Staff Writer Feb 29, 2016 7:53 PM CUT Occasionally, an animal will go viral on the Internet for doing something shocking in New York City, from the so-called [“pizza rat,”](http://time.com/4043383/rat-pizza-slice-subway/ "undefined") the rodent that dragged a piece of pizza down subway steps, to the squirrel that [grabbed a Shake Shack milkshake](http://time.com/4046272/milkshake-squirrel/ "undefined") out of a Madison Square Park garbage can. The latest surprise occurred at 7:45pm on a Sunday, when a raccoon strolled up West 115th Street and climbed up a tree on Broadway across the street from Columbia University’s campus in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan. This brazen “street raccoon” just sat up there for a minute or two, looking around as city buses and taxis zoomed by, before it climbed down and sauntered up the avenue. Presumably it came from Riverside Park, where [the creatures have been seen many times before](http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/diseases/cdrab-cp.shtml "undefined"). A few young adults rushed towards the animal with their smartphones to take photos. When the raccoon parked itself next to the entrance of a Japanese restaurant, one could be heard exclaiming, “This is _not_ the time for Snapchat to malfunction!” Maybe the animal was just looking to grab dinner, since it chose to take a walk around a block that has a halal food cart, the 24/7 supermarket Morton Williams, and a Japanese restaurant. We’ll never know. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4241265/raccoon-in-tree-new-york-city-columbia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4241265/raccoon-in-tree-new-york-city-columbia/"},"headline":"There's No Reason For This Giant Raccoon to Be Up in a Tree on a New York City Street But Here It Is","datePublished":"2016-02-29T19:53:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:30:34.395Z","description":"Manhattan is full of surprises","url":"https://time.com/4241265/raccoon-in-tree-new-york-city-columbia/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3addf0acc5428de3/69887f978e0601e781464d4c/raccoon2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3addf0acc5428de3/69887f978e0601e781464d4c/raccoon2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"raccoon","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4241265/raccoon-in-tree-new-york-city-columbia/","name":"There's No Reason For This Giant Raccoon to Be Up in a Tree on a New York City Street But Here It Is"}}]}] ```