THE RACCOONS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE 

 AMERICA 



By EDWARD A. GOLDMAN, Senior Biologist, Biological Surveys, Branch of 



Wildlife Research 



introdu€:tion 



The raccoons, genus Procyon, colloquially known as "coons," belong 

 to the carnivorous family Procyonidae, which also includes the Ameri- 

 can genera Nasua, Nasuella, Bassaricyon, and Potos, and the Old 

 World genera Ailurus and Ailuropoda of the subfamily Ailurinae. 



The members of the Procyon lotor group (subgenus Procyon), with a 

 transcontinental range from southern Canada to Panama, except in 

 parts of the Rocky Mountain region, and including those inhabiting 

 several distant islands, are among the most familiar and characteristic 

 of North American mammals. This group is not known to occur 

 south of Panama. It is overlapped in the Isthmian region by the 

 so-called crab-eating raccoons of the subgenus Euprocyon, which 

 range from that northern limit as far south as Paraguay in South 

 America. The raccoons have been greatly reduced in numbers or 

 have disappeared in many formerly wooded sections, owing to clearing 

 and intensive human occupation. Despite adverse conditions, how- 

 ever, they have maintained themselves in many places with remarkable 

 tenacity. Trapping for other fur bearers may have reduced the 

 northern fringe to some extent, but the general range of the group has 

 been little diminished. At the present time raccoons reach their 

 northern limit in regular occurrence on Vancouver Island, B. C. 



The continental forms of the subgenus Procyon constitute a com- 

 pact assemblage of closely allied geographic races all assignable to 

 Procyon lotor. Complete intergradation is evident in numerous cases 

 and the relative value and combination of characters presented indi- 

 cate such close relationships that it can safely be assumed where lack 

 of material leaves gaps in the known ranges. 



In the present revision of the raccoons are treated the North Amer- 

 ican continental species as far as the eastern border of Panama and the 



PLATE 1 



Pacific Northwest Raccoon {Procyon lotor pacijicus). 



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