"Bottomland deciduous habitats or habitats with aquatic association are thought to sustain the highest densities of raccoons in the southeast because of water availability, den sites, and mast production (Lotze and Anderson 1979, Minser and Pelton 1982, Leberg and Kennedy 1988). In addition, supplemental food resources (ie. anthropogenic sources) and supplemental den sites are thought to be factors that contribute to increased raccoon densities (Hoffman and Gottschang 1977, Prange et al. 2003). Raccoon densities in rural, harvested areas vary widely, 0.9 – 27.0 animals/ km2 (Riley et al. 1998). The bottomland deciduous habitat located around the riverine are in Lowndes County contained a higher density of raccoons (8 animals/km2 ) than the forested habitat in west-central Alabama, but not nearly the magnitude of animals reported in other rural hunted habitats. Natural food resources as well as the potential of anthropogenic influences likely contribute to the higher densities in this area as well as in the ag habitat. This is additionally supported by the larger raccoons documented in these habitats compared to the forested site. Supplemental food may also allow for increased survival rates (Riley et al. 1998) and retention of juveniles (Prange et al. 2003). We found no difference in proportion of juveniles to adults to suggest retention of juveniles due to increased habitat quality from the central to the western sites. However, these are preliminary results and may have been observations prior to dispersal of juveniles."

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1085&context=icwdm_wdmconfproc

Last edited by CNC; 04/12/22 01:47 PM.
“Buy the ticket, take the ride...And if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind….well, maybe chalk it up to forced consciousness expansion…..Tune in, freak out, get beaten”....Hunter S. Thompson