Do all wild animals carry rabies?
Any mammal can potentially carry rabies. However, there’s only a few animals that seem to be relevant rabies vectors. In Florida, it’s mostly raccoons and bats that are of concern. Otters, foxes, and some other animals may also carry and transmit rabies, but they’re rare. Rabies is not terribly common here. I get phone calls like this all the time: “I just saw a raccoon outside during DAYLIGHT! It must have rabies!” This isn’t true – raccoons are often active during daylight hours, especially females with young. Most cases of rabies transmission to humans in North America are actually caused by bats, but even this is a rare thing.
Any mammal can potentially carry rabies. However, there’s only a few animals that seem to be relevant rabies vectors. Most rabies transmission in North America is from bats. Worldwide, it’s dogs. People in the US get all worked up over raccoons, but transmission to humans is extremely rare. If you see a raccoon active during daylight hours and it’s moving about normally, it’s healthy: many raccoons are active in the day. However, if the animal is clearly sick: walking in circles, stumbling, foaming, etc. then it may have rabies. Same goes for fox, skunk, and a few other animals. Please be aware that rabies is a terrible and fatal disease – it’s not something that animals carry around casually. If an animal is rabid and in the contagious state, it’s close to death – foaming, stumbling, delirious. An animal that is behaving normally probably does not have rabies.
