Contact Rates of Raccoons (Procyon Lotor) at a Communal Feeding Site in Rural Eastern Ontario

Abstract

Intra-and interspecific contact rates of 12 adult (five females, seven males) raccoons (Procyon lotor) were recorded while these animals fed at a rural garbage dump 40 km north of Kingston, Ontario, Canada from 15 June to 5 September 1995. While raccoons were being observed, they bit, and were bitten, by their conspecifics an average of 0.99 (Ϯ0.21) and 1.28 (Ϯ0.21) times per hour, respectively, while feeding. Based on mean nightly contact rates (which included time when raccoons were not observed), raccoons bit one of their conspecifics once every 3 nights while feeding. The mean rate of bites made and received per hour for males was not significantly different from lactating females. There was no detectable difference between the mean rate of bites made and received per hour for raccoons which regularly versus occasionally fed at the dump. No interspecific contacts were observed, though raccoons and striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) often fed at the dump concurrently. The contact rates in this study are the first to be calculated for raccoons directly from field data and will be useful as a point of reference for modeling rabies spread in raccoons in areas with similar site characteristics.

Seasonal Home Ranges of Raccoons, <em>Procyon lotor</em>, Using a Common Feeding Site in Rural Eastern Ontario: Rabies Management Implications

“…A Mann-Whitney U test (Zar 1996) and Statistica Version 6.0 software (StatSoft Inc., Tulsa, Oklahoma) were used to test for statistical differences in Raccoon home range size. Raccoons were grouped into regular and occasional dump visitors based on the number of nights each animal was seen at the dump out of a total of 35 observation nights in a concurrent behavioral study (Totton et al 2002). Raccoons were defined as regulars if they were observed at the dump on >51% of all observation nights and occasionals if they were seen at the dump on ≤51% of the observation nights.…”

“…The same Raccoons on which contact data were obtained in the Totton et al (2002) study were used. In addition, two Raccoons, caught at a smaller feeding site (compost heap) were tracked periodically to determine their daytime resting sites.…”

Familiarity Breeds Contempt: Combining Proximity Loggers and GPS Reveals Female White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus Virginianus) Avoiding Close Contact With Neighbors

“…Past researchers have quantified contact rates by visual observations (Totton et al 2002), simultaneous telemetry locations (very high frequency [VHF] or global positioning system [GPS]) within a specified distance (e.g., ,10 m, Ramsey et al 2002;Schauber et al 2007), or proximity loggers ([PLs]; Ji et al 2005;Prange et al 2011) but, few studies compare these methods (Walrath et al 2011). Visual observations are challenging for nocturnal and cryptic animals, except at feeding or watering areas.…”

Do not feed the wildlife: associations between garbage use, aggression, and disease in banded mongooses (Mungos mungo)

“…2012), increasing contact rates within and between species (Totton et al. 2002; e.g., Campbell et al. 2013), and have been linked to altered disease outbreaks in a number of systems (e.g., Totton et al.…”

“…2013), and have been linked to altered disease outbreaks in a number of systems (e.g., Totton et al. 2002; Hosseini et al. 2004; Cross et al.…”