NATIONAL RACCOON DAY

October 1st every year.

NATIONAL RACCOON DAY.

Raccoon
​
Conservation Status is Least Concern

Description
Raccoons are medium-sized, stocky mammals with a prominent black mask over the eyes and a heavily furred, ringed tail about half the length of head and body, a pointed muzzle, and short, pointed ears. The feet are rather long and slender, with naked soles. The upperparts of adults are grizzled brown and black, strongly washed with yellow. Males and females look alike, although males are heavier.

Size
Total length: 21½–38 inches; tail length: 5–12 inches; weight: 6–25 pounds.
Average size: 3-5 kits.
Range: Litters can contain 1 to 7 kits.
Frequency: Raccoons have one litter per year.


Raccoon Eyesight
 
In 1908, H. B. Davis published The Raccoon: A Study in Animal Intelligence in the American Journal of Psychology. Among the experiments discussed were investigations into color perception.

Davis noted that the available experiments suggested that raccoons might not distinguish colors in the same way humans do. Instead, differences in brightness appeared to be much more important.
 
That observation made biological sense. Raccoons are primarily nocturnal animals. Their eyes are adapted to function in low-light conditions, where detecting movement and differences in light intensity can be far more valuable than seeing a broad range of colors.

Davis pointed out that the apparent lack of color discrimination was less surprising when considering the raccoon's nocturnal lifestyle and the structure of the retina.
 
A 2005 publication, “Diversity of Mammalian Photoreceptor Properties: Adaptations to Habitat and Lifestyle,” by Leo Peichl of the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany, examined differences in mammalian retinal systems and their adaptations to lifestyle and habitat.

Microscopic examination of raccoon retinas demonstrates an important characteristic: an extremely high density of rod photoreceptors.
 
Rods are highly sensitive to light and are particularly important for vision in dim conditions.
This provides a biological explanation for something trappers have observed for generations.
Raccoons are exceptionally well equipped to detect available light and movement at night.
 
That doesn't mean a raccoon sees the world exactly as a human would see it in black and white. Rather, the important point for the trapper is that raccoon vision is strongly adapted toward low-light sensitivity and detecting differences in brightness and movement, rather than human-like color vision.
 
And that distinction matters.
 
A Raccoon's World Is Different From Ours
 
Natural-history references have long described raccoons as having relatively poor color discrimination while being well adapted for detecting light.
 
Their eyes are large and convex, helping gather available light. Their retinas contain relatively fewer cones than those of humans, while rods are highly developed.
 
The result is an animal exceptionally suited to moving and finding food during darkness.
 
Raccoons also have forward-facing eyes that provide binocular vision, although their visual system is not particularly well suited for judging long distances.
 
This creates an interesting picture.
 
A raccoon moving down a creek, along a trail, or through a field at night isn't experiencing the same visual world that we do.
 
An object that looks insignificant to us may stand out because of its brightness, contrast, movement, or reflection of available light.
 
That helps explain why generations of trappers reported raccoons investigating shiny objects.
Raccoons are thought to be color blind or at least poorly able to distinguish color, though their eyes are well-adapted for sensing light. - ​(Hohmann, p. 63; MacClintock, p. 18; Zeveloff, p. 66)
Eyes are large and convex, which allows for bright images to project into the retina. The retina contains fewer cones therefore raccoons tend to be color blindness or possibly have “color weak” vision. It may be difficult to detect colors but they can detect a difference in brightness. (Zeveloff 2002).
The No. 1 Nest Predator -  Research going back to 1948 by biologist across the nation, has the same results.
Raccoon is always the answer.
1851 - John James Audubon - The quadrupeds of North America.
The Raccoon - It is fond of eggs, and devours them raw avidity, and if it finds a nest will feast on them morning, noon and night without being satiated.
​1930 - Aldo Leopold  – Game Management
Chapter: Predator Control
Stoddard believes that when a raccoon or skunk finds, by accident, a series of quail nests, he develops the ability to find more, and becomes a habitual egg-eater, provided he find nests often enough to reward his efforts.
While the predator develops increasing skill, the prey probably does not develop increasing resistance.




PRE - ​COLONIZATION ERA OF THE RACCOON
 
In North America, Native Americans regularly hunted raccoons as food and for their fur, which they used to make clothing. Fur from various mammals, including raccoons, was used by certain indigenous people to create hats. The size of the pelt and the thickness of the fur made raccoon pelts an attractive choice for hat-making. The raccoon’s tail, often left attached to a pelt, became a prominent component of these caps. In addition to being part of one’s normal hunting attire and a means to stay warm in the winter, possession of a “coonskin cap” sometimes conveyed special status within a tribe.
 
Native Americans used more traditional trapping methods, such as basic snares, pit traps, and deadfalls. In the early 16th century, European settlers brought metal trapping devices with them and established the North American fur trade with Europe. The fur trade was the main source of commerce for settlers and funded the extended period of colonization.
 
COLONIZATION ERA OF THE RACCOON
 
Around 1550, the "Beaver Era" started and would last for about 300 years. The beaver population at the time was prosperous and widespread throughout almost all of New York State. Pelts were treasured for their warmth, texture, and durability, so many were traded, sold, or used in clothing production. Other furbearers were trapped during "The Beaver Era," including the bobcat, badger, muskrat, RACCOON, river otter and coyote.
 
Early colonial settlers used raccoons as a source of fur and meat during the 1600s, a practice that continued through the 1800s. Raccoon fat was used as a lubricant, leather softener, and replacement for beef lard. Although raccoon pelts were not as prized as those from beaver, they still became objects for trade and bartering in poorer rural areas. As was true for Native Americans, settlers also made coonskin caps, which became an iconic image of frontiersmen like Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone.

FRENCH FUR TRADE OF THE RACCOON
 
The 1600’s - France’s claim to Canada and neighboring areas dates back to 1535 when Jacques Cartier discovered the St. Lawrence River and sailed to the site of what is now Montreal. In 1608 Samuel de Champlain arrived as governor, and settlement began.
 
Many of those first immigrants found the fur trade an easier and more profitable existence than the drudgery of farming. To control the trade, a string of outposts was established, some where missionaries had already settled. Years before Detroit was founded, several of these forts, or trading posts, were flourishing in Michigan: Sault Ste. Marie (1668), Fort de Baude at St. Ignace (1686), Fort St. Joseph – where Port Huron is now (1686), one in St. Joseph (1679), and one in Niles (1691).
 
Before long, Cadillac reported that 2000 Indians had set up their living quarters in the area, and others were coming in to trade their furs. The pelts that were shipped from Fort Pontchartrain of Detroit included bear, elk, dear, marten, RACCOON, mink, lynx, muskrat, opossum, wolf, fox and, of course, beaver. Within a rather short time, Detroit was established as the center of the Great Lakes fur trade.
 
ENGLISH FUR TRADE OF RACCOON
 
​The 1700’s - For the next forty years the prices for goods in Detroit were quoted in terms of beavers or bucks a buck was a buckskin, the hide of one large, prime, male deer.
 
The British decreed that one beaver pelt was worth one good buckskin or one small buckskin and one doeskin.
 
One small beaver was worth one marten or two RACCOONS, while one large beaver might be worth as much as six RACCOONS
​
The Commandant at Detroit in 1772 described the traders as “a sad set, for they would cut each others’ throats for a RACCOON skin”
​
HUDSON BAY COMPANY FUR TRADE OF THE RACCOON
 
Hudson Bay Company from the 1800s and early 1900s, hunters and trappers in the U.S. sold an average of about 3,500 raccoon pelts to the Hudson Bay Company annually.
 
​By the mid-1940s, annual national pelt sales to the Hudson Bay Company had increased to 1 million but ultimately rose to nearly 2 million by the early 1960s.
 
Early settlers also brought the European tradition of hound hunting to the New World in the 1600s, where hunting success was enhanced by relying on the dogs’ keen senses of sight and smell. Since raccoons first appeared in written records in 1612.


UNITED STATES FUR TRADE OF THE RACCOON
​
The Raccoon U.S. harvest averaged about 360,000 per year in the 1930s, increased to about 900,000 per year in the 1940s, and increased further to 1.3 million pelts per year in the 1960s (40 times greater than the Canadian harvest).
 
 
In the 1970s the U.S. harvest more than doubled to 3.1 million pelts, and thus far in the 1980s the harvest has averaged about 4.2 million pelts per year (26 times greater than the Canadian harvest).
 
 
The Raccoon populations, although they had declined to low levels by the 1930s, then experienced a continent-wide population explosion from 1943 to the late 1940s. Since that time, high population levels have been maintained to such an extent that the raccoon range has expanded to include areas where they were rare or absent during the 1930s.
 
 
Hence the large harvest of raccoons during the 20th century is mainly a reflection of the increase in the sizes of raccoon populations.
 
 
Additionally, in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, raccoon coats were extremely popular in the United States, especially among college students, and this popularity has continued to the present partly as a result of the moderate price of raccoon coats.
 
The 1968 the U.S. Department of Interior Reported 878,234 Raccoon pelts sold, 98,514 Opossum Pelts sold and 19.459 Skunks sold in the U.S..
 
 
The total North American yearly average harvest of more than 4.4 million pelts in the 1980s makes the raccoon harvest the most valuable of all North American furbearers. The value of the North American harvest of raccoons was estimated to be about $94 million (CDN) in 1982–83, about 3.3 times greater than the value of the second most valuable species, the muskrat ($28 million CDN).




LATEST FUR MARKET

Today there are more restrictive regulations on trapping than any time in history across the United States.


Feb 2023 - International source - The harvest of raccoon for United States fur value is the lowest it has ever been, less than 100,000 and could be far less.
 
The Trapper - December 2023 - Latest Fur Market Insights
Raccoons remain at dismal prices until Russia comes back to table. Until war is over it won't happen.
I cannot see raccoon prices going upward for the NEXT THREE YEARS!​
 
In Missouri Raccoon harvest records based on fur buyers’ records in 2022-2023 which was the lowest in Missouri recorded history at 11,576. Before that, 1942 was the lowest recorded season for raccoon harvest.  In comparison 1977 – 300,000 raccoon pelts sold and 1998 – 200,000 raccoon pelts sold.
 
The raccoon does not care about fur prices, politics, government regulations or your feelings – Birth rate does not change.