Raccoon Research Paper

Raccoons (Procyon lotor) are members of the family Procyonidae that occupy a geographic range spanning from southern Canada to Panama and includes islands near the coasts (Lotze and Anderson 1979). P. lotor has pointed foxlike snout offsets its round face, which highlighted by a distinctive black bandit’s mask across the eyes. Their body is typically also round, that can also be classified as a pear shape in certain positions. Its tail bushy and it is striped with an alteration of black and dark bands (Zeveloff 2002).

Zeveloff (2002) argues that the raccoon may well be one of the world’s most omnivorous animals. Although they are mostly nocturnal, they can also take advantages of the daylight to feed. For example, in salt marshes, raccoons

may be active in low tides and inactive in high tides. In low tide, they diet consists of invertebrates such as mollusks (Zeveloff 2002). They are opportunistic omnivores that often eat more plant than animal matter (Elbroch and Rinehart 2011).
Raccoons have rapidly established a reputation for hygiene and cleanliness because of its feeding habits (Lyall-Watson 1962).

The word lotor in the raccoon’s scientific name means “washer” in neo-Latin. It has been studied that captivated raccoons, in an environment that has no water available, will move their forepaws the same way they do when if they are dousing their food in water (Conger 2008). This proves that they have highly dexterous forepaw, just like humans, they also have they same nerve grouping as hairless part of primates, thus making them sensitive to touch (Turnbull and Rasmusson 1986). In a study examining slow adapting nerves in the forepaws of raccoons, researchers found that getting the skin wet will have a great effect on the nerve responsiveness, thus making them more sensitive (Rasmusson and Turnbull 1986). This concludes to raccoons not being washers, they are more of “dunker” just to sensitize their touch

sensory.
P. lotor is known to be associated with nematodes Baylisascaris procyonis. Adult raccoons can get them by eating rodents, birds or small mammals, while younger raccoons get them from their parents grooming them (Kazacos and Boyce, 1989; Sheppard and Kazacos, 1997). B. procyonis goes into the raccoon’s gastrointestinal tract and they can excrete a vast of amount of eggs in their stools. Raccoons tend to defecate in a communal site called latrines that can be found on trees, decks patios, stumps, attics and or garages (Kazacos and Boyce 1989, Kazacos 2001 and Page et al. 1999). These latrines are primarily the cause the roundworms that can be harmful to humans. Eggs of B. procyonis are passed in raccoon’s feces and people can be infected by ingesting eggs by contaminated fingers, soils, or any objects that encounter the human’s mouth.
HYPOTHESIS
Considering that previous studies regarding food washing of mammals suggest that it decreases the chance of getting infected by the parasite, is it probable that this concept is related to the parasitism of roundworms to raccoons?

I expect that the raccoons’ parasite incidence to be reduced since they are cleaning the food item they are ingesting from all the bacteria that had contaminated it. Would this behavior be an adaptation for them to clean and sterilize their food in water, hoping that they do not get roundworms or other parasite or is it an adaptation for them to just clean the food they are ingesting from all the sharp bones or inedible

products?
METHODS
Thirty captivated raccoons are collected from North Carolina. All the raccoons will be dewormed before the beginning of the experiment, as our starting point with knowing that they are not infected with any parasite and disease. Ten of the original raccoons are randomly picked and put into a study area where there is a water source nearby to see if they do wash their food. Another ten of the starting raccoons were randomly picked and placed in a study area where there will be no water source nearby to see if there will be any difference in the parasite count in their fecal matter. The remaining ten would be placed in just an urban location in North Carolina to test as our control. The food requirements will be maintained so it is like they are foraging for it and if its like they are in a rural location. For every week, we will take a sample of the fecal matter from their latrines in each location treatment and test for the different parasites that they could have encountered, this will be tested by using fecal float (adapted from Hernandez et al. 2012). This procedure will be repeated for a duration of 6 weeks to test whether washing food would be an adaptation to decrease parasitic nematodes in raccoons.
To test whether dousing food in water is just a tactic for raccoons to tell them whether it is free from inedible substances, we will set up the experiment similarly to the previous method, although we would manipulate the food given to each treatment, we would put some false food in their treatment location and see whether they would be able to differentiate the plastic food from the real food. This study would be repeated for a duration of 4 weeks.
POSSIBLE RESULTS
If my first hypothesis is correct that raccoons do wash their food for hygienic purposes for reducing the incidence of parasites and diseases, I would expect the parasitic egg count from raccoons’ feces that is placed in a location that is near a water source would be less than the parasitic count in the control environment and the environment with no water source. If the second hypothesis is right, then it would show that raccoons located near water have a higher rate of them knowing whether the food is edible or not since they can sense the food more thoroughly than the one with once that are in located with no water source. If the first hypothesis is not true, then I would expect no difference in parasite count in the fecal matter of the raccoons in each treatment, thus showing that raccoons washing their food do not reduce the risk of parasites and it is not an adaptation. If the second hypothesis is not true, I would expect the raccoons to eat the plastic food replica in each environment, since they would not be able to differentiate the faux and the real food.
SIGNIFICANCE
Information gained through these experiments will provide value insights in the function of dousing food in water of P. lotor, and would help to find a way to prevent the spread of parasitic nematodes that can be found in raccoon’s fecal matter since the interaction between people and raccoons are more frequent. This is also significant in providing a knowledge in the behavioral evolution of one of the common mammal in urban areas.