Survivorship of a nonharvested raccoon population in South Texas

To fully understand the effects of han est and other anthropogenic factors on raccoon (Procyon lotor) populations, information is needed on survival of raccoons that are protected from these types of mortality We monitored raccoons in South Texas during 1990-93 to determine age- and sex-specific survivorship of a raccoon population protected from legal harvest. Juvenile survivorship was low (S = 0.65) during the nestling stage but increased as young matured and began traveling with mothers. Nestling survival was related to natal den type. Monthly survival distributions differed (P < 0.05) between yearling and adult raccoons, but there was no difference (P > 0.05) between adult males and females. Our annual survival estimates for males and females (S = 0.84) were higher than those reported for a harvested population in Iowa. Our comparison of survival estimates from Iowa and Texas suggests han est may be additive for raccoons or, if han est is compensatory, raccoons in Iowa may have lower survival than raccoons in Texas, regardless of harvest.