Mass to Girth 



95 



Thirteen raccoons were captured 5 or more times for analysis of indi- 

 vidual variation in the mass to girth ratio. The stability of the allometric rela- 

 tionship between girth and mass exhibited substantial variability in correlation 

 and linearity (Table 2). Only three raccoons showed a linear correlation between 

 girth and mass during their capture histories. One female (4160M) exhibited a 

 significant linear correlation without a strong fit of the data to the line indicating 

 little relationship between mass and girth for this individual. 



Fig. 1 . Linear relationship between mass and girth of raccoons captured in west- 

 ern Tennessee from February 1991 to November 1993. 



O) 



9.0 

 8.0 

 7.0 

 6.0 

 5.0 h 



co 4.0 



3.0 

 2.0 

 1.0 



0.0 



200 



/= 0.02916 (X)- 5.5904 

 r 2 = 0.8044 

 P= 0.0001 

 /V=103 



250 



300 350 



Girth (mm) 



400 



450 



DISCUSSION 



Several studies have shown a relationship between length and mass 

 when length is converted to a volumetric measure (see Johnson 1970, Dunn and 

 Chapman 1983, Vogel 1979, Schmidt-Nielsen 1984). The mass of an animal is 

 believed to be approximated by volume, thus, the reason comparing mass to the 

 cubed length of and animal. Because girth is a circumgeal measurement, a clos- 

 er aproximation to mass may be achieved. The relationship between mass and 

 girth has been shown for phocid seals (Hofman 1975, Castellini and Kooyman 

 1990) and dromedary camels (Camelus dromedarius) (Schroter et al. 1992). 



Due to the manner in which most subcutaneous fat is accumulated in 

 raccoons (Stuewer 1943), girth should vary in relation to mass. Regression 

 analysis indicated that this occurred. Additionally, the mass to girth ratio was 



