Vital Statistics and Harvest of an Iowa Raccoon Population

We studied reproduction, survival, and dispersal of an exploited raccoon (Procyon lotor) population in Iowa farmlands during 1982-86. Mean pregnancy rate of yearlings was 59%, significantly less than the 91% observed among animals ≥2 years old. Pregnancy rate was best predicted by a logistic regress...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of wildlife management 1989-10, Vol.53 (4), p.982-990
Main Authors: Clark, William R., Hasbrouck, James J., Kienzler, James M., Glueck, Thomas F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Age structure
Agricultural seasons
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Demecology
Female animals
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Harvesting seasons
Litter size
Mammalia
Mortality
Pregnancy rate
Procyon lotor
Vertebrata
Vital statistics
Wildlife
Yearlings
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Summary:We studied reproduction, survival, and dispersal of an exploited raccoon (Procyon lotor) population in Iowa farmlands during 1982-86. Mean pregnancy rate of yearlings was 59%, significantly less than the 91% observed among animals ≥2 years old. Pregnancy rate was best predicted by a logistic regression function of age, carcass weight, and their interaction. Litter size of 3.1 young/yearling female, was significantly less than the 3.8 young/adult female. We found no differences in survival of yearlings and older raccoons or between males and females. A single rate adequately represented survival of all raccoons during the nonharvest seasons (Jan-Oct). Juvenile survival, from age 4 months through the end of the harvest season, ranged from 0.37 to 0.78. Annual survival of adults ranged from 0.47 to 0.75. Harvest and vehicle accidents accounted for 78 and 10% of all recoveries, respectively. Juvenile and adult survival were not significantly different during any of the harvest seasons. Eighty nine percent of the harvest occurred in the first month of the open season. We estimated maximum potential harvest to be 41% of the preharvest population; observed harvest was 32%. There is potential for density-dependent compensation among mortality sources during the harvest season, in mortality among young and adults in following seasons, and in reproduction.
ISSN:0022-541X
1937-2817
DOI:10.2307/3809599