Raccoons are omnivores with an opportunistic diet; eating almost anything they can get their paws on. In urban areas, where wildlife and fresh vegetation are limited, raccoons will be more likely to eat human food and invade trashcans. The majority of their diet consists of sweet foods like fruits and invertebrates.
Raccoons can be extremely destructive due to their curiosity, intelligence, dexterity and climbing skills. Raccoons can carry several bacterial diseases and parasites that can be transmitted to humans and pets through a bite or the ingestion of raccoon waste.
Females have one to seven offspring after a gestation period of 60 to 73 days. As a group, a mother and her baby raccoons are called a nursery. For the first two months of their lives, babies live in their den and are weened at 7 to 16 weeks. At 12 weeks, they will start to roam away from their mothers for whole nights at a time, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
They become completely independent at 8 to 12 months of age. Raccoons live around 2 to 3 years in the wild. The pygmy raccoon may have fewer than mature individuals left in the wild, and the IUCN estimates that the total population size, including juveniles, is only to Raccoons in the northern parts of their range gorge themselves in spring and summer to store up body fat.
They then spend much of the winter asleep in a den. There are several other species of raccoons, in addition to the familiar northern North American raccoon.
Most other species live on tropical islands. All rights reserved. Common Name: Raccoons. Scientific Name: Procyon lotor. Type: Mammals. Diet: Omnivore. Group Name: Nursery. Size: Weight: 4 to 23 pounds. Size relative to a 6-ft man:. Least concern. The head seems large in comparison to the rest of the body.
They typically weigh three to five ounces. When hungry, cold, or not in contact with another warm body, the cubs will start chattering, whine or twitter like birds.
They can crawl in a spider-like fashion with all four legs in extension, but cannot climb or stand and support their full weight. The eyes open at about 21 days, the ears shortly thereafter. They will be very vocal at this age.
They will churr, growl, hiss, and give an alarm snort. When five to six weeks old, most can walk, run, and climb very well. Seven-week-old cubs will engage in active and sometimes rough fighting characterized by growling, squealing, biting, wrestling, and imitating adult defense postures. After about eight to nine weeks of age they begin eating solid foods in the wild and begin traveling with their mother.
When four months old, they will be completely weaned. Raccoon mothers with cubs enjoy a privileged position in the raccoon hierarchy. Other raccoons will defer to a female with cubs in feeding situations. This privileged status lasts as long as the cubs remain with the mother.
In northern areas this applies to Virginia , cubs will stay with the mother close to a year until she is ready to breed again. In southern areas, cubs may go off on their own in the fall, but after dispersal will often reunite as a family from time to time in denning and feeding situations.
Raccoons can live up to 16 years in the wild but most die before reaching five years. Studies show that the greatest mortality occurs during the second year of life. Principal causes of mortality are activities of man — mainly hunting, trapping, automobiles, and dogs. Other causes can be malnutrition and disease.
Natural predators are cougars, bobcats, wolves, coyotes, alligators, foxes, and great horned owls. The number of deaths caused by natural predators is insignificant compared to the number of deaths caused by man.
Raccoons are one of the few native mammals that have not been restricted to increasingly smaller areas of natural habitat by urban development. Attics and chimneys become dens and rest sites, storm sewers become subways and pet food left outdoors replaces the traditional dietary staples. This urbanization has created the potential for frequent encounters between humans and raccoons.
0コメント