Procyon lotor

Biological Overview

Habitat
Raccoons live in wetland like regions, abandoned burrows or buildings, and some even live in suburban neighborhoods!

Diet
Raccoons eat vegetables, fruits, insects and small rodents these help to benefit the ecosystem.

Role in Ecosystem
Raccoons role in their ecosystem is to get rid of waste, they control insect and rodent population by consuming them, and lastly they disperse seeds produced by fruits and other pieces of vegetation.

Behavior
Characteristics of racoons are that they are very intelligent, and inventive when it comes to finding ways to obtain food. Some of the things that racoons do are that they are nocturnal, they have sensitive front paws. They are dexterous when it comes to using their paws,and they have food washing habits. Finally, they can easily adapt to urban environments

Human Impact

Humans have sadly impacted the Raccoons pretty negatively. Many Raccoons are suffering from physical altercations like; shorter snouts and smaller teeth. Raccoons are also suffering from higher mortality rates due to vehicles incidents, spreading of deadly diseases, and increased human wildlife conflicts. There are 3 good impacts humans have had like how raccoons have been reposted to have an increase in their intelligence, and they have become more inventive when it comes to finding ways to find human waste, and lastly there has been a major increase when it comes to their risk taking meaning they have been eating in daytime rather than night time.

Creative Exploration

A raccoon sits in a hollow tree looking at a buzzing bumble bee
Wondering where he would rather be.
He is spread as a leaf sitting on a tree.
Why couldn’t he just be free with his friends family.
He just truly wanted to be free with his best friend stanley.
But maybe not being free was his problem.
What he needed was to be able to breathe.

Aliyah Mazyck, Marley Kolodi, Brooke Faircloth

Book 8