Federal Aid Project No. W-99-R-6 Study XII: Raccoon Investigations Job No. 5: Cooperative Raccoon Collections

During the 1993-94 raccoon hunting and trapping seasons unskinned raccoons were examined only three times at the Perardi Bros. Fur and Wool co., Inc., Farmington, Illinois. Low pelt prices caused a reduction in the effort of raccoon hunters and trappers--as in 1992-93, many raccoon trappers did not set their traps during the 1993-94 raccoon trapping season. For these and other reasons, Perardi Bros. Furhouse greatly reduced their efforts to buy raccoons during the 1993-94 season. During the past 39 seasons, unskinned seasons, except for the past two raccoons were examined and data collected every other week (when unskinned raccoons were available) at the Perardi Bros. Furhouse. Data collected included body weight, body length, sex, how caught, condition of nipples for females and of the penis for males, general health, weight of the gonads, number of placental scars per uterus, presence of sperm in the epididymis, and age. Age was determined from the radius and ulna and penis bone and from tooth sections of animals that weighed >=12 . O lb and of parous females regardless of weight. Because of the small number of raccoons examined, only tentative conclusions can be drawn from the data for 1993-94. The total harvest of raccoons in Illinois in 1993- 94 was approximately 126,211, an increase of 26.2% from the previous season. The average pelt value was $5 . 85, an increase of 15 . 8% over the previous year. Data collected from 1955-56 through 1993-94 have been entered into a single data base, and preliminary analyses of some of the data have been made.Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration W-99-R-6unpublishednot peer reviewedOpe