Information About Raccoons
Raccoon, also called Racoon, (Latin: Procyon lotor) is a medium-sized mammal, located in North America. His original habitats are deciduous and mixed forests, but can easily live in the mountains, coasts and even urban areas, where it can catch pests. Raccoon perfectly adapted to life in the city, found in parks and large gardens. This animal avoids dry forests and mountain areas. Before World War II raccoon was brought to Asia and Europe. The first Suffolk County raccoons were released into the wild in Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and West Germany.
With a body length of 41-72 cm and a weight of 3.6 to 9 kg raccoon is the largest representative of the family procyonidae. His thick undercoat, which serves as insulation in cold weather, occupies almost 90% of his gray hair. The two most interesting parts of the raccoon are his hypersensitive paws and his face mask. The raccoon has a strong body, short legs, which are long and moving fingers, the nails of the animal are very sharp. When the raccoon is in a standing position, it is based on the entire sole, and when it moves, the walking involved the thumb, which is why traces of raccoon resemble human handprints. The number of teeth is about 36-42. The Suffolk County raccoons are characterized as “beasts”, which are clever. Some studies show that they can remember things for up to three years. They are able to discern momently the difference between identical and other symbols three years after the short initial learning phase. The raccoons belong to the group of omnivorous and are generally nocturnal animals. Raccoons are able to hear very quiet noise, such as earthworms, digging underground.These animals are very good at swimming and they love to stay in the water for hours.
Although they lived in scarcely wooded areas in last decades, raccoons depend on vertical tree structures to climb when they feel threatened. Therefore dens of trees in old oaks and other trees and rock niches are preferred by raccoons as sleeping places. If no such dens are available or the access to them is difficult, raccoons use burrows excavated by other mammals, dense bushes or tree crotches.
Their diet consisted of 40% of the invertebrates, plants 33% and 27% vertebrates. While the New York raccoon’s diet in spring and early summer consists mostly of worms, insects, snails, frogs, and mice and other animals that are already available at the beginning of the year, he prefers fruits and nuts such as acorns and nuts that appear in late summer and autumn, and have a rich source of calories to build the necessary fat for the winter.
Raccoons have a specific social behavior. Especially their specific trait is sudden attack against the enemy. Because of their intelligence and nimble forelegs, even inexperienced raccoons are easily able to unscrew jars, unlocking bottles and opening door latches. Sexually mature raccoons often have aggressive natural behavior, for example, they bite during the breeding season.
The females live together in their own territory, while males live in groups of four to keep their positions from invaders during the breeding season. The area is between 0,03 km² for females in cities to 49,5 km² for males in prairies. After a pregnancy of about 65 days the female raccoon born between 2 and 5 small spring. These small leave their mother in the autumn. Although many females will stay closer to home range of their mother, males can sometimes move more than 20 kilometers (12 miles) away. This is an instinctive behavior, preventing inbreeding. However, the mother and child can share a den during the first winter. While captive raccoons have lived over 20 years in their natural environment they live on average 1.8 to 3.1 years. Hunting and smuggling are the two most common causes of death.
Raccoons can carry rabies, a deadly diseasetransmitted through bites and caused by neurotropic rabies virus carried in the saliva. Among the main symptoms of rabies in Suffolk County raccoons are aggressiveness, generally sickly, impaired mobility and abnormal vocalization. Some of the most dangerous diseases that influence raccoons are tetanus, leptospirosis, tularemia and listeriosis. Despite inside parasites are weakening their immune system, the individuals, which are well-fed can take a large number of roundworms in their stomachic contracts without showing any symptoms.The larvae of Baylisascaris procyonis roundworm rarely causes serious illness in humans can be absorbed when cleaning raccoon toilets without wearing protective mask. Raccoons suffer from conjunctivitis, paralysis paresis, dermatitis, and, moreover, transfer the causative agents on their hair.
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