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Species
Procyon lotor (Linnaeus, 1758)
IUCN
NCBI
EOL Text
Raccoons are commonly associated with washing their food. Their latin name, lotor, means "the washer." People sometimes keep young raccoons as pets, because they are curious and intelligent. Once grown, however, raccoons can be quite destructive in and around homes.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2013, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
Source | http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Procyon_lotor/ |
Raccoons are commonly associated with washing their food. Their latin name, lotor, means "the washer." People sometimes keep young raccoons as pets, because they are curious and intelligent. Once grown, however, raccoons can be quite destructive in and around homes.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2012, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
Source | http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Procyon_lotor/ |
Originally a North and Central American species, occurring from the Canadian prairies southwards across the United States (except for parts of the Rocky Mountains and the deserts) to Panama. Introductions since the 1930s of animals into Germany the Russian Federation, and many subsequent escapes by farmed animals across Europe, have resulted in expanding European and Central Asian populations of this species (Mitchell-Jones et al., 1999). Individuals have also been recorded from Denmark, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources |
Source | http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/41686 |
Conservation Actions
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources |
Source | http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/41686 |
"Raccoons are among the most adaptable of the Carnivora, able to live comfortably in cities and suburbs as well as rural and wilderness areas. They use small home ranges, as small as 1—3 square km, and show flexibility in selecting denning sites, from tree hollows to chimneys to sewers. A varied diet is at the root of their adaptability. Raccoons eat just about anything, finding food on the ground, in trees, streams, ponds, and other wet environments, and from unsecured trash cans, which they open adroitly by hand. They can live anywhere water is available, from the deep tropics well into southern Canada. Even in the suburbs, Raccoons can occur at densities of almost 70 per square km. Females can breed when they are not yet a year old, and typically have litters of four young, which they raise themselves. The female nurses her cubs for about 70 days. The cubs' eyes open at 18—24 days and they begin exploring the world outside the den when they are 9—10 weeks old. By 20 weeks of age they can forage on their own."
Adaptation: As an adaptation to an omnivorous diet, the molars of the Northern Raccoon, Procyon lotor, have lost their flesh-eating crests and have evolved a blunt-cusped crow, which is more efficient in crushing and grinding tough foodstuffs.
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Raccoons may be a nuisance to farmers. They can cause damage to orchards, vineyards, melon patches, cornfields, peanut fields, and chicken yards. Their habit of moving on to the next ear of corn before finishing the first makes them especially damaging to fields of both sweet corn and field corn. Raccoons also carry sylvatic plague, rabies, and other diseases and parasites that can be transmitted to humans and domestic animals.
Negative Impacts: injures humans (carries human disease); crop pest; causes or carries domestic animal disease
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2013, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
Source | http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Procyon_lotor/ |
Canada
Origin: Native
Regularity: Regularly occurring
Currently: Present
Confidence: Confident
Type of Residency: Year-round
United States
Origin: Native
Regularity: Regularly occurring
Currently: Present
Confidence: Confident
Type of Residency: Year-round
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | NatureServe |
Source | http://explorer.natureserve.org/servlet/NatureServe?searchName=Procyon+lotor |
Winter dens - The most commonly used winter dens are in hollow trees.
Tree dens may be in any hollow limb or trunk of sufficient size. Den
cavities examined by Stuewer [35] averaged 11 by 14 inches (29 by 36
cm), and were mostly from 10 to 39 feet (3-12 m) above the ground.
Well-insulated winter den sites may be especially important to northern raccoon
survival in the northern part of their range [11].
Ground burrows dug by common gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), red
fox (Vulpes vulpes), woodchuck (Marmota monax), striped skunk (Mephitis
mephitis), and American badger (Taxidea taxus) are also used, especially
in areas where hollow trees are scarce. Other winter den sites are in
rock crevices and caves, abandoned buildings, brush piles, and on the
ground in swamps under clumps of cedar (Thuja spp.). Common muskrat
(Ondatra zibethicus) houses are used occasionally in marshes where
hollow trees are scarce [6,26,30].
Natal dens - A pregnant female chooses a new den in which to have her
litter. In many areas, hollow trees are the most popular choice.
Underground burrows are also used. Litters may also be raised in rock
crevices, caves and abandoned mine shafts, brush and slash piles,
sawdust piles, common muskrat lodges, wood duck (Aix sponsa) boxes, and
magpie (Pica spp.) nests [6].
All dens are generally located 220 to 460 feet (67-140 m) from water [6].
Daytime rest sites - In marshes, swamps, and open fields the most common
resting site is on the ground in herbaceous vegetation. Usually no nest
is prepared, but in saltmarshes northern raccoons build flat platforms of
cordgrass (Spartina spp.) and rush (Juncus spp.) as much as 1 mile (1.6
km) from dry land. Northern raccoons also rest during the day on bare tree
limbs, mashed-down eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) nests,
and in clumps of Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) [6,21]. Northern raccoons
may change daytime rest sites daily [6].
Information on state- and province-level protection status of animals in the
United States and Canada is available at NatureServe, although recent changes
in status may not be included.