Racoons

I heard at a conference the other day that racoons imported from N. America now pose a threat to Hynobius tokyoensis in some parts of their range in eastern Japan. These are racoons that were imported as pets and have either escaped or been released into the wild, where their numbers are increasing. I'm thinking of writing an article about this problem and was wondering if anybody has anything on racoon predation on salamanders in the U.S. and Canada.

hmmm, japan has raccoons, you can do a google image search for "tanuki" they are thinner and more fox-like than american raccoons. tanuki and kitsune (fox) are reputed as shapeshifters and trouble makers. basically japanese gremlins. or dare i say, a japanese Xolotl? (dr. evil pose)

my question is, who thought it would be a good idea to keep something as virulent as a racoon for a pet in a country that would provide instant ideal habitat?

they don't make good pets, they tend to go wild and escape. and they will, its hard to keep your cat indoors, try keeping a racoon inside. a cat will come home.

I thought it was illegal to move tigers across state lines? If he's a smuggler you can always report him.

Anyway, I haven't heard of racoons here hurting the salamanders to much although except for snake predation and cars most things don't bother with Taricha. I'm sure they occationally get an Ensatina or a Aneides though.

it was a hypothetical question.

you know, raccoons are quite a bane to our local few isolated blandings turtle populations, wood turtles also, but ie personally encountered dozens of molested blandings turtle nests arround kejimakukik national park. i always check for some missed eggs, never find any tho.

the only protective measures in place for blandings nests in nova scotia is nest protection cages, they arent perfect, and they only apply if you find the turtle while its laying.

since the park is a tourist attraction, nests are often violated by thoughtless vandals. this population is extremely isolated and the easternmost blandings popolation known. it may in fact be the most annomalous natural reptile population known and the next known population is thousands of miles away and thats if you cross ocean. its a few hundred farther by land.

the park, having a campground, leads to some serious consequences for the turtles. in the form of raccoons, they are like rats, they go where people go. and when people are around, they breed immoderately, after all, food is always abundant. that doesn't mean they will stay away from turtle eggs. all the animals at the park are disturbingly tame. squirells and chipmunks will climb onto you and beg for food, raccoons also will beg. it's rather obvious people break the rules and feed them.

other animals specific to the park and rare (if even existant) in the rest of the atlantic provinces include four-toed salamander, ringneck snake, and common ribbon snake.

of which ive only encountered the latter in our range, and then only breifly.

one time tho i spotted a monster snapping turtle under my canoe. my friend had a panic attack, i just wanted to dive in the muskeg and grab it by the tail it had to have been over 80lbs easy. it was like the whole bottom moved. it was so big i had to look at it twice just to see it all
it was a floating-island backwater succession-pond with channels all networked through the muskeg. i always wanted to snorkle there. if ther exist neotenic ambystoma maculatum in our range, i reckon it would be there. its some of the hardest water in NS. (good think i diddnt grab that turtles tail i think i was 13 at the time, i even had a rat tail

i mean that the population occurring here is not one of many dotted through the turtles range.
it is an threatened island population, far from any other known population

heres a site with a brief note or two

http://www.canadianbiodiversity.mcgill.ca/english/species/endangered/endangeredpages/emy_bla.htm

this site shows some of the isolated populations east of the main range note the tiny dot on southern nova scotia. it would be a few days drive to the next population

http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dfwmr/wildlife/endspec/bltufs.html

its pretty safe to say the turtles existance here is an annomaly, not that they are here mind you, but that they are STILL here. the population is limited to a single lake and its waterways

looking at the coastline,it would appear that nova scotia was once attached to new england, it is rather apparent (through logical observation) by the division of the populations and the shape of coastline, that blandings turtles roamed the land when digby county NS was boston harbour.

thats a long time ago i would think and in all of NS, theres one spot, unique in habitat to the rest of the province. about as inland as it gets. where this turtle still lives.

what makes it so very annomalous i suppose is that the range itself migrated, the turtles just went along for the ride over many eons.



and now that theres people, it is being eaten by racoons. sigh

in all those eons, you gotta wonder what kind of adaptations would set NS turtles apart from say, new york turtles

theres a buffalo in newfoundland