516 
RACCOON 
Distribution.—The distribution of the 
coon* population, fig. 7, in Illinois is much 
like that of the possum* population, fig. 
10. Coons, fig. 8, are least common in the 
prairie region centering around Livingston 
County and in an area in the south central 
part of the state. They are most common 
in the wooded counties bordering the Mis- 
Table 4.—Weighted per cent of Illinois fur- 
takers who reported catching coons, and 
weighted average catch of coons per effective 
fur-taker; data derived from _ fur-takers’ 
monthly reports, and weighting done on the 
basis of the relative size of counties repre- 
sented. 
WEIGHTED WEIGHTED 
Per Cent AVERAGE 
Co.eoe OF CaTcH OF 
Fur-TAKERS Coons PER 
CATCHING EFFECTIVE 
Coons Fur-TAKER 
1929-30.... 31 28 
1930-31... 28 i 
1934-35... 24 226 
1935-36.... 29 2.3 
L9S6=57 mee. OF, 2.4 
1937-38.... oe 2.8 
1938-39... . 33 BAO 
1939-40. ... 35 2.8 
1940-41... 35 Sao 
1941-42... 37 3.0 
sissipp1, Illinois, Ohio and Wabash rivers, | 
particularly in those bordering the Missis- 
sipp! and the Ohio in the southern end 
of the state. 
According to figures from the oral sur- 
vey, the yield in Calhoun County was 23 
times as great, and in Union County it 
was 14 times as great, as in Champaign 
County. 
Trappers, Catch and Income.— 
Monthly report data indicate for the pe- 
riod of this study a decline of the coon 
catch (possibly ending about 1933), fol- 
lowed by a strong recovery, table +. For 
the 1938-39 and 1939-40 seasons, index 
figures for per cent of fur-takers catching 
coons, table 4, are respectively 2 and 3 
points lower than the corresponding fig- 
ures calculated from information assem- 
*Both popular and literary usage sanctions use of the 
word coon for raccoon and possum for opossum. 
ILLINoIs NATURAL History SURVEY BULLETIN 
Vol. 22, Art 
bled during the course of the oral survey. 
In both sets of data, the 1939-40 figures 
show a slight rise over those of the pre- 
vious season. The average-catch-per-eftec- 
tive-fur-taker indices show a strong recoy- 
ery after the 1936-37 season; the weighted 
figures varied from 2.3 during the 1935- 
36 season up to 3.2 during the 1940-41 
season, table 4. In both 1938-39 and 
1939-40, they are 0.9 point below the 
average catch figures for corresponding 
years revealed by data accumulated for the 
Brown & Yeager report. Both sets of 
data, therefore, show a slight decline for 
Fig. 7.—Distribution of coons in Illinois as 
indicated by fur-takers’ monthly reports for 
the seasons of 1929-30, 1930-31 and 1934-35 
through 1939-40. Data from these eight sea- 
sons of monthly reports have been transferred 
to the map in such a way that the county 
having the largest average catch per fur- 
taker has the greatest density of dots; other 
counties are dotted proportionally. The num- 
bers in the margins represent for each county 
indicated the average catch per square mile 
as revealed by Brown’s survey for the 1938-. 
39 and 1939-40 seasons. In general, a close 
correlation exists between the two sets of data, 
despite the fact that one is for eight seasons 
and the other for two. 
