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The raccoon (/ r ə ˈ k uː n / or US: / r æ ˈ k uː n / ⓘ, Procyon lotor), also spelled racoon [3] and sometimes called the common raccoon or northern raccoon to distinguish it from the other species, is a mammal native to North America.
Some prior classification schemes included the red panda or divided the family into named subfamilies and tribes based on similarities in morphology, though modern molecular studies indicate instead that the kinkajou is basal to the family, while raccoons, cacomistles, and ring-tailed cats form one clade and coatis and olingos another, despite ...
The clades leading to coatis and olingos on one branch, and to ringtails and raccoons on the other, separated about 17.7 Ma ago. [14] The divergence between olingos and coatis is estimated to have occurred about 10.2 Ma ago, [ 14 ] at about the same time that ringtails and raccoons parted ways.
Raccoons have a great many natural predators, but as these have been reduced in the wild, raccoon numbers have exploded.
Trash pandas (or raccoons, if you want to be formal) are notorious nighttime mischief-makers, raiding garbage cans and compost bins for an easy meal and making quite a mess along
Procyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals comprising three species commonly known as raccoons in the family Procyonidae. The most familiar species, the common raccoon ( P. lotor ), is often known simply as "the" raccoon, as the two other raccoon species in the genus are native only to the tropics and are less well known.
Grist reports that roughly 30 percent of the world's population considers insects a delicacy or dietary staple.
The raccoons live in densities of about 17–27 individuals per km 2, [12] and inhabit home ranges of around 67 hectares (170 acres) on average. [15] However, individuals do not appear to defend territories to any great extent, and their close relative, the common raccoon, can exist at very high densities when food is abundant. [ 16 ]