What made the raccoon climb the skyscraper ...

A raccoon that became an internet sensation by scaling a 25-storey office tower in downtown St Paul, Minnesota, was safely trapped and released back into the wild.

The raccoon looked a bit bedraggled but healthy after it was caught atop the UBS Plaza.

Technicians took the caged raccoon down a freight lift to a truck, according to Wildlife Management Services, which provides animal control services for St Paul.

"It's definitely a healthy raccoon. It's in good condition. It's eating normally," said Christina Valdivia, the company's general manager, who accompanied the technicians to the rooftop.

The raccoon's adventures caused a stir on social media as it scaled the tower yesterday, with many Twitter users voicing concern for its safety or joking about the drama.

The animal made it to the roof last night, where traps baited with cat food were waiting. The raccoon, a female, was released later and scampered into a wooded area on private property near the Twin Cities suburb of Shakopee.

Suzanne MacDonald, a raccoon behaviour expert at York University in Toronto, said: "Raccoons don't think ahead very much, so raccoons don't have very good impulse control. I don't think the raccoon realised when it started climbing what it was in for."

Initial speculation was that the raccoon climbed to a lower part of the building, frequented by pigeons, in search of bird eggs.

But workers who tried to lure it down with a wooden ramp likely just scared it, said Phil Jenni, executive director of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre of Minnesota.

So it did what raccoons do when they're stressed: it climbed. It's not unusual for raccoons to climb fairly tall trees and other structures, according to MacDonald and Jenni, though neither had heard of one climbing such a tall building before.

What you've all been waiting for... #MissionImpossible #MPRraccoon 🤣 @kare11 @ElleryTV @DPet_KARE11News @timnelson_mpr pic.twitter.com/SZKNem45yf

— Alicia Lewis (@alicialewisKARE) June 13, 2018

- AP