FACTORS INFLUENCING DENSITY AND BAIT UPTAKE IN RACCOONS INHABITING COMMON SOUTHEASTERN U.S. HABITATS

Over the past decade, raccoon (Procyon lotor) rabies control and elimination efforts across the Southeastern United States have significantly progressed through management programs involving the distribution of oral rabies vaccines. However, consumption of vaccine baits by non-target species (e.g. Virginia opossum) is negatively affecting the efficiency of these management efforts. To improve management outcomes, quantification of habitat-specific population densities of target and non-target bait consumers across a variety of common Southeastern habitats is desirable, as is elucidation of expected habitat-specific levels of bait competition between raccoons and the major bait competitor in southeastern habitats, the Opossum. Thus, my objectives of this research were to 1) estimate raccoon population density in four common southeastern habitats (pine, wetland, riparian, bottomland) for use in determining suggested habitat-specific vaccine bait densities for control of raccoon rabies virus and 2) quantify competition levels for vaccine baits between raccoons and opossums in four common southeastern habitats.