If you are like me, then coonhounds play a big part in your life. I can spend hours with my friends talking and thinking about the dogs we know & how good or bad they are.  It occurred to me the other day that coonhounds aren’t much fun without raccoons. As I thought about this, I realized that I didn’t actually know too much about raccoons. Through trial and error I have found some areas that have raccoons and these are where I like to go hunting. Along the way I’ve noticed that one year there seems to be hardly any raccoons while the next year there will be bunches. That’s about it? I’ve spent years chasing raccoons and all I know is that some places have raccoons and there may be more or less of them in any given year! I decided to see if I could find out a little more about my furry friends. 

When I set out to research this topic, I was primarily interested in finding the raccoon populations for my part of the country. So how does one go about determining raccoon populations? My first contact was Bill Berg, the furbearer research biologist for the Minnesota DNR.

Bill advised me that furbearers are particularly difficult to inventory because of the enormous area they inhabit and the difficulty in observing them. No official attempt is made on the part of the DNR to estimate the raccoon population in Minnesota. Bill went on to explain that some population information does exist for our area in the form of harvest data and scent station surveys. 

When I got a look at raccoon harvest numbers didn’t they didn’t really impress me too much. These statistics are derived with calculations that use hunting license sales figures and DNR survey forms. The true number of raccoon hunters and accurate answers to the surveys are essential for this system to work. Even the DNR questions the validity of this process and is investigating alternatives. Using this system, estimators believe that between 170,000-200,000 raccoons are taken annually in Minnesota. Harvest numbers are just that, a record of how many raccoons were harvested. So you learn nothing of actual raccoon populations from this.

Scent station surveys on the other hand give a little better information. The official name of this program is the Interagency Cooperative Scent Station Survey. Interagency is the key word here. A variety of organizations all over the state of Minnesota cooperate in setting nearly 4000 scent stations and recording the results. A scent station consists of a 3’ diameter circle of smoothed earth with a fatty-acid scent tablet placed at the center. A line of 10 scent stations are placed along unpaved roads at intervals of about 1/3 of a mile. A line will be set for 1 night each year between late August and mid-October. On the following day the presence (or absence) of tracks are recorded for individual species. These records are compiled each year into a number called the scent station index. Over a period of time a trend will emerge from these index numbers. That is, there are either more or less raccoon tracks each year. While this still doesn’t give an actual population, it is possible to know if the population is increasing or decreasing. The data also gives some insight into the distribution of raccoon populations throughout the state.

Bill provided me with a copy of scent station survey summary through 1998. The data has been collected over a period of 23 years and indicates that the raccoon population has increased almost every year. The instance of raccoon tracks has risen a staggering 700% in the farm belt located in the southern and western parts of Minnesota. During this same period, an increase in tracks of about 250% can be seen in a transition area of the state that lies between the farmland and the forests of the north.  The forested lands in the northern part of Minnesota have experienced only a slight increase in its scent station index. So what does this mean? Well, if in 1976 you lived in Minnesota farmland and you had one raccoon in your woods, you might well have 7 raccoons there today. Bill guessed that the raccoon population in Minnesota is far in excess of 1.5 million.

So much for Minnesota, what about the rest of the country? Well, here is some information I was able to in a few other states.

The Michigan DNR  provided information very similar to that for Minnesota. It was stated that raccoons occur in all counties in Michigan and it is estimated that 2-3 million raccoons are in Michigan at the time that hunting and trapping seasons begin each year. Notice the low and high estimates at 1 million apart, it occurs to me that what they are saying is, “I don’t know for sure how many raccoons there are, either a lot, or really a lot!”

 The Missouri Conservation department thinks their raccoon population has increased over the past decade and currently is near 2 million. While the Nebraska Game and Parks had this to say, “In the 1940s, a continent-wide population explosion occurred as raccoons expanded their range and increased in abundance. There were at least 15 times more raccoons in North American in the 1980s than in the 1930s”.

 At first I was very pleased to learn that the raccoon population was doing so well. I like chasing raccoons with my hounds and the more of them around the more fun I have. Unfortunately, as I continued to learn more about raccoons I encountered some unsettling information. Raccoons may be fun to chase, but their increasing population is having its negative effects. Raccoons are predators and they can devastate many species of wildlife. Ground-nesting animals, such as ducks, pheasants and turkeys, are especially vulnerable to their hunt. Several kinds of turtles are probably headed for extinction, largely because of raccoon predation. One study site in northern Michigan reported that raccoons are getting 90 to 100 percent of the wood turtle's eggs.

Raccoons are now in far northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and compounding problems for waterfowl managers there. One Michigan biologist in Michigan biologist Joe Johnson was quoted “the raccoon has all of the makings of an environmental disaster”.

Dense raccoon populations are also to blame for the spread of parasites and diseases. The human population, their livestock and domestic pets are all at risk. B. procyonis larvae can burrow into your brain and kill you. Rabies will have you and you dog foaming at the mouth. Then there are always distemper and parvo to worry about. I was really shocked when I learned of the health risks associated with raccoons. This is a very important subject and I plan to cover it in more detail in a future article. Let me say these few things for now. Make sure that your vaccinations are current. Always wash thoroughly after coming in contact with raccoons. See a doctor if you are bitten by a raccoon.

So raccoon populations are rising and that turns out to be a bad thing. OK, then that should make coonhunters pretty popular, right? Well, probably not. As you may already know, animal rights activists have turned public sentiment against wearing fur. They are now working hard to stop hunting and trapping. Raccoon hunters and trappers tend to be portrayed as savage brutes. It appears now that raccoon populations are controlled mainly by disease and road kill mortality. Hunter and trapper harvest have some effect but the raccoon population is still growing every year.