Essay On Raccoon

Because they eat plants and animals, omnivores survive well in many environments. Some omnivores, like the raccoon, the opossum, and the seagull have no problem adapting to living near humans. They often dig through garbage cans, dumpsters and gardens to find food.

(Raccoons, 2015)

The raccoon can be found in most of the United States

The raccoon lives in wooded areas near water. It is very adaptable though and is also found in suburbs and cities. It usually makes its den in a tree, but it may make its home in an abandoned woodchuck burrow, a cave, barn, sewer, or even a house!

The raccoon is omnivorous and opportunistic. Common foods include fruits, nuts berries, insects, rodents, frogs, eggs and crayfish. In some rural areas, corn is a large part of the raccoon's diet. In suburban and urban areas it often forages through trash cans for food. If water is near, the raccoon will sometimes put its food in the water and roll it around. It looks like it is washing its food, but it is not. The raccoon is softening the food and looking for foreign objects on the food.

The mother also teaches them how to hunt for food and climb trees. The mother raccoon is very protective of her young and will attack predators that come too close.

The raccoon is mostly

nocturnal. It is also solitary, except for mothers and their young. In the winter the raccoon may sleep in its den for a few weeks but it does not hibernate. The raccoons usually walks, but it can run at speeds of up to 15 miles an hour. It is also a good swimmer and often hunts for food in the water.

(Link, 2004)
Raccoons prefer forest areas near a stream or water source, but have adapted to various environments throughout Washington. Raccoon populations can get quite large in urban areas, owing to hunting and trapping restrictions, few predators, and human-supplied food.
Adult raccoons weigh 15 to 40 pounds, their weight being a result of genetics, age, available food, and habitat location. Males have weighed in at over 60 pounds. A raccoon in the wild will probably weigh less than the urbanized raccoon that has learned to live on handouts, pet food, and garbage-can leftovers
• Raccoons also eat insects, slugs, dead animals, birds and bird eggs, as well as fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Around humans, raccoons often eat garbage and pet food. • Although not great hunters, raccoons can catch young gophers, squirrels, mice, and rats. • Except during the breeding season and for females with young, raccoons are solitary. Individuals will eat together if a large amount of food is available in an area.
The most effective way to prevent conflicts is to modify the habitat around your home so as not to attract raccoons.

Recommendations on how to do this are given below: Don’t feed raccoons. Feeding raccoons may create undesirable situations for you, your children, neighbors, pets, and the raccoons themselves. Raccoons that are fed by people often lose their fear of humans and may become aggressive when not fed as expected. Artificial feeding also tends to concentrate raccoons in a small area; overcrowding can spread diseases and parasites. Finally, these hungry visitors might approach a neighbor who doesn’t share your appreciation of the animals. The neighbor might choose to remove these raccoons, or have them

removed.
A disease that contributes significantly to raccoon mortality is canine distemper. Canine distemper is also a common disease fatal to domestic dogs, foxes, coyotes, mink, otters, weasels, and skunks. It is caused by a virus and is spread most often when animals come in contact with the bodily secretions of animals infected with the disease. Gloves, cages, and other objects that have come in contact with infected animals can also contain the virus. The best prevention against canine distemper is to have your dogs vaccinated and kept away from raccoons.
If a person is bitten or scratched by a raccoon, immediately scrub the wound with soap and water. Flush the wound liberally with tap water. In other parts of the United States raccoons can carry rabies. Contact your physician and the local health department immediately. If your pet is bitten, follow the same cleansing procedure and contact your veterinarian.
(Paquette, Talbot, Garant, Mainguy, & Pelletier, 2014) (Paquette, et al, 2014)
In skunks, our results suggested that dispersal is increased in edge habitats between fields and forest fragments in both males and females.

Wildlife pathogens, including some that can be very harmful to humans and livestock, are transmitted when infected hosts come in direct or indirect contact with uninfected individuals.

geographic distance was the main predictor of pairwise relatedness in raccoons.

high-quality habitat may reduce dispersal if all resources needed by an organism are found within a small area, but may stimulate dispersal if a habitat patch becomes overcrowded.

(Heiser, n.d.).

Raccoons attracted by feeding end up raiding everyone’s unprotected trash cans. There is also an associated risk of more dangerous human/wildlife interactions.

Raccoons and other wildlife species frequently roam out neighborhoods in search of easy food sources. If these animals become concentrated in large numbers as a result of people feeding them, the animals can spread diseases to each other and cause property damage.

Rabies and distemper in raccoons is one example of possible outbreaks associated with artificial feeding.

Raccoons are omnivores and adapted to eat many types of food items, and they have an abundance of natural sources to select from.

(Cukan, 2002)
"I've seen raccoons round as balls from bread -- what happens is someone starts feeding a couple of raccoons and soon someone has 30 raccoons showing up daily at their deck wanting food and then it gets nasty and residents call us."