Caught another one of the smaller cat sized coons this morning….This one was a female that weighed in at 4.83 lbs…..I’m assuming these small ones are our dispersing adolescents that were born last year. That’s 6 coons and 2 possums so far with all of the coons being either young dispersing adolescents or roaming males likely looking to breed…..From my past trapping runs this seems to be pretty par for the course for this time of year when the females are denned up having babies……little movement amongst the older females…..All of this would mean that the adolescent coons are likely having the largest impact on nest raiding. To begin with they represent the largest number of cohorts of any group on the landscape. They also arent focused on breeding in their first year and they’re in the stage of life where they’re trying to rapidly grow……..which means large food demands…… Older females likely don’t raid that many nests in comparison because they arent moving much and older males are far fewer in comparison to the number of adolescents and likely focused more on breeding than anything….like bucks during the rut.

I say that to again point to the potential impact of the number of coon babies being produced due to females going into the den in really good shape from eating corn all winter. How many adolescent coons are roaming the landscape during nesting as a result??.....Also, if their numbers are artificially inflated during this time period then its very likely that they’re depleting some other natural food sources that are usually available during this time and amplifying the nest raiding effect.