how many species of raccoons are there?
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Raccoon
The raccoon sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a medium-sized mammal native to North America.
It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of 40 to 70 cm (16 to 28 in), and a body weight of 5 to 26 kg (11 to 57 lb).
Its grayish coat mostly consists of dense underfur, which insulates it against cold weather.
Three of the raccoon’s most distinctive features are its extremely dexterous front paws, its facial mask, and its ringed tail, which are themes in the mythologies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas relating to the animal.
It is usually nocturnal and omnivorous, eating about 40% invertebrates, 33% plants, and 27% vertebrates.
The original habitats of the raccoon are deciduous and mixed forests, but due to their adaptability,
they have extended their range to mountainous areas, coastal marshes, and urban areas, where some homeowners consider them to be pests.
As a result of escapes and deliberate introductions in the mid-20th century, raccoons are now also distributed across much of mainland Europe, the Caucasus, and Japan.
resources:wikipedia
today on solsarin , we are going to look into raccoons and different species of these bushy , soft , cute and sometimes anoinig animals.
Raccoons are mostly gray with some reddish or black tints and gray underparts.
They have a distinctive black mask around their eyes.
Their long tail has rings of black and yellowish-white.
They have small, erect ears and a pointed muzzle.
Their black feet have five toes on each paw.
Raccoons grow to about 28 inches in length and can weigh as much as 35 pounds.
The number of species and their distribution
There are nine species of raccoons in various locations from Alaska to Argentina, but the only raccoon commonly encountered as a pest is the North American raccoon, Procyon lotor. This raccoon is found throughout the United States and Mexico and in subarctic Canada. It has also been introduced to Germany and Japan.
raccoon that are native to america
The photogenic and endearing but often destructive raccoons are members of a group of small animals related to dogs and bears.
Except for an animal known as the red panda, all of the members of the raccoon family are native to North or South America.
All of the raccoons originated in locations where there are trees.
The relatives in the raccoon found in South and Central America include the olingos, kinkajous, cacomistles, and coatis.
raccoons in united states
Raccoons were once relatively rare in the United States.
Naturalist Samuel Zeveloff cites reports that indicate there are over 100 times as many raccoons in the United States and Canada now as there were 200 years ago.
Massive plantings of corn (maize) in much of the United States provide raccoons with one of their favorite foods.
The connection between human population and the numbers of raccoons in u.s.a
The facts about Raccoons – they have multiplied as woodland has been transformed into farmland as the human population of the United States has grown from under 3 million to over 300,000,000, providing millions of raccoons with garden vegetables, fruit, nuts, grain, and household garbage on which to feed.
In the 1800’s, many areas in the United States supported approximately 1 raccoon per square kilometer, about 3 raccoons per square mile.
In 2002, a study of raccoons in Indiana found 222 raccoons per square kilometer, about 700 raccoons per square mile.
different traits of raccoons in different areas
Although the largest raccoons, weighing up to 25 kilos (58 pounds), are found in Texas, generally raccoons are larger in the northern United States and Canada than in the southern United States and Mexico.
Raccoons tend to have darker coats in forest regions and lighter coats in desert regions. Southern raccoons tend to be social, and Northern raccoons tend to be territorial.
Different parts of North America have different species of raccoons that are best controlled in different ways.
9 different types of raccoons includes:
1)Procyon lotor lotor
2)Procyon lotor maritimus
3)Procyon lotor elucus
4)Procyon lotor litoreus
5)Procyon lotor auspicatus
6)Procyon lotor varius
7)Procyon lotor fuscipes
8)Procyon lotor mexicanus
9)Procyon lotor inesperatus
Eastern raccoon (Procyon lotor lotor)
eastern raccoons are a familiar sight just about everywhere, because they will eat just about anything.
They are adaptable and use their dexterous front paws and long fingers to find and feast on a wide variety of fare.
In the natural world, raccoons snare a lot of their meals in the water.
These nocturnal foragers use lightning-quick paws to grab crayfish, frogs, and other aquatic creatures.
On land, they pluck mice and insects from their hiding places and raid nests for tasty eggs.
Raccoons also eat fruit and plants—including those grown in human gardens and farms. They will even open garbage cans to dine on the contents.
These ring-tailed animals are equally opportunistic when it comes to choosing a denning site.
They may inhabit a tree hole, fallen log, or a house’s attic.
Females have one to seven cubs in early summer.
The young raccoons often spend the first two months or so of their lives high in a tree hole.
Later, mother and children move to the ground when the cubs begin to explore on their own. 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 six other species of raccoons, in addition to the familiar northern (North American) raccoon.
Most other species live on tropical islands.
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Procyon lotor maritimus
Procyon lotor elucus
Procyon lotor litoreus
Procyon lotor auspicatus
Procyon lotor varius
Procyon lotor fuscipes
Unlike other raccoons in southerly locations, Procyon lotor fuscipes, the Texas raccoon, can grow to the size of a small to medium dog.
It has jet black hair on its mask.
This unusually social raccoon ranges from Texas south to northern Mexico and east to western louisiana
Unlike most other raccoons, this raccoon is social.
It does not drive young out of the nest, and groups of up to 10 raccoons may join forces to eat entire fields of corn (the writer of this article once had a 2-acre field of corn stripped of every single ear) or overturn all the garbage cans in a neighborhood.
Texas raccoons are especially social during drought.
When they congregate around water supplies, they are prone to transmit disease-bearing lice to each other.
Procyon lotor mexicanus
The Mexican raccoon, is found in northern Mexico, western Texas, and southern New Mexico. It has an especially broad, uninterrupted mask and bristled gray hair.
The Campeche raccoon , Procyon lotor shufeldti; the Salvadoran raccoon, Procyon lotordickeyi; the Costa Rican raccoon, Procyon lotor crassideus; and the Isthmian raccoon, Procyon lotor pumilus range across southern Mexico and Central America.
Raccoons also range across the Western United States.
Procyon lotor psora, the California raccoon, is another large, dark subspecies with an uninterrupted black mask.
The Pacific Northwest raccoon, Procyon lotor pacificus, has cinnamon brown fur with long black hairs.
Procyon lotor inesperatus
. It has an especially small mask and especially gray fur.
To read more.
Taxonomy and evolution
Genetic studies have shown that the closest relatives of the raccoon are the ring-tailed cats, coatis, and cacomistles.
In the first decades after its discovery by the members of the expedition of Christopher Columbus—the first person to leave a written record about the raccoon—taxonomists
thought the raccoon was related to such taxonomic groups as dogs, cats, badgers, and particularly bears.
Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, placed the raccoon in the genus Ursus, first as Ursus cauda elongata (“long-tailed bear”) in the second edition of his Systema Naturae, then as Ursus lotor (“washer bear”) in the tenth edition.
In 1780, Gottlieb Conrad Christian Storr placed the raccoon in its own genus Procyon, which can be translated either to “before the dog” or “dog-like”.
It is also possible that Storr had its nocturnal lifestyle in mind and chose the star Procyon as eponym for the species.
