Home range, body condition, and survival of rehabilitated raccoons (Procyon lotor) in Nebraska

Hundreds of Northern Raccoons (Procyon lotor) are rehabilitated and released back into the wild each year in Nebraska, however the effects of rehabilitation has on post-release survivorship is unknown. I examined wildlife rehabilitation success by comparing pre-winter body condition, home range size, distance to man-made structures and survival between wild and rehabilitated raccoons. Pre-winter body condition did not differ between wild and rehabilitated raccoons, but there was a trend for rehabilitated raccoons to be in better body condition. Differences were not significant between wild and rehabilitated raccoons for Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP), 95% Adaptive kernel (AK), 90% AK home ranges, or core (50%) use areas. There was no significant difference in distance to release site between sexes within rehabilitated raccoons. There was no significant interaction between treatment (wild and rehabilitated) and sex for distance to man-made structures. Within treatment, rehabilitated raccoons were found significantly closer to human habitation than wild raccoons and within sex, females were found significantly closer to human habitation than males. Wild raccoons had a 33% mortality rate while rehabilitated raccoons had a 20% mortality rate. My results indicate that raccoon rehabilitation did not seriously affect pre-winter body condition, home range size, and survival; however rehabilitated raccoons were found closer to human habitation.