Raccoon Species: Diversity, Distribution, and Conservation Challenges

Raccoons are members of the Procyonidae family, sharing a close relationship with animals like pandas, kinkajous, and coatis. Within this family, there are six recognized raccoon species, the most familiar being the North American raccoon (Procyon lotor). This adaptable creature ranges from Canada to Central America, thriving in a variety of environments. Another prominent species is the crab-eating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus), which inhabits a broad range of South America, from Venezuela down to Argentina, known for its preference for aquatic habitats and crustaceans.

In addition to these, there are island-specific species such as the Tres Marias raccoon (Procyon insularis) from Mexico's Tres Marias Islands, the Cozumel Island raccoon (Procyon pygmaeus), and the Guadeloupe raccoon (Procyon minor), all of which are native to the Caribbean. Unfortunately, the Bahama raccoon (Procyon maynardi) is critically endangered, facing the threat of extinction. Meanwhile, the Barbados raccoon (Procyon gloveranni) is believed to have already gone extinct, highlighting the vulnerability of these isolated populations. Conservation efforts are crucial for preserving the remaining species, particularly as habitat loss and human activities continue to pose significant risks to their survival.
Raccoon Species: Diversity, Distribution, and Conservation Challenges

Mouse-Deer: Family of Tragulidae

Mouse-deer are the ancient group of small, hornless ungulates that live in Asian and African tropical forests. The family Tragulidae (Genus Hyemoschus, Genus Moschiola, Genus Tragulus) to which the three existing genera of mouse deer or chevrotains belong is considered to be the basal ungulate family from which present-day ungulates have evolved. All species found to be lacked of antlers, have elongated canines that are more prominent in males and have short and thin legs with four toes on each foot.

There are six important species of mouse-deer genus Tragulus:
African mouse-deer
India mouse-deer
Greater mouse deer
Lesser mouse-deer
Philippine mouse-deer
Vietnam mouse-deer
Williamson's mouse-deer

Lesser mouse-deer or Tragulus kancil, because of their small size and their weight only around 2 kg likely use food resources near the forest floor. They eat such as fallen fruits and short vegetation. Plants in crown-gap areas produce fruit a lot more often than most species in mature forests.

Lesser mouse-deer remain concealed during daytime, while they emerge during the night to forage and mate.
Mouse-deer

Squirrels of North America

Squirrels are hoppers like rabbits, but they normally leave two sets of paired tracks, one in front of the other, with prints from the larger hid feet appearing in front of smaller front feet.

Squirrels constitute a family, the Sciuridae, of the order Rodentia, all being descendents of a common ancestor that lived some 30-40 million years ago. They live in grasslands, forests, and deserts.

Most squirrels fall into two main categories – ground squirrels and tree squirrels. Ground squirrels are talented diggers, constructing burrow systems that may be quite elaborate with multiple entrances. They vary in how social they are, with some species living in colonies with much interaction and others leading more solitary lives.

The squirrel family is one of 31 families of rodents and consists of about 250 different species, including chipmunks and marmots. The eastern gray squirrel and the fox squirrel coexist over a large part of the eastern United States, from Florida at Michigan, commonly with the southern flying squirrel and without the North American red squirrel.

Squirrels are classified by their scientific name: sciuridae, a Latin designation originally taken from the Greek worlds meaning ‘shadow tail’. All squirrels share a number of anatomical features – teeth, jaw musculature, skull and other bones – that scientists use to identify recent and fossil squirrels.
Squirrels of North America

Bobcat

Bobcat is a species of cat (Lynx rufus) in the subfamily Feline (mammalian order Carnivora, family Felidae) that is closely related to the lynx.

Bobcat is also known as wildcat or bay lynx. It is distinguish from the similar Canada Lynx by its relatively small feet, ears tuftless or with very short tufts, and bobbed tail, white below.

Bobcats vary greatly in size (5-18 kg), males among larger than females. Like other wildlife in North America, they are symbolic of the spacious and natural beauty that most inhabitants of this continent rarely see or experience today.

The fur is pale brown to reddish with black spots. Bobcats are nocturnal and generally solitary.

Bobcats are found over an extensive geographic area from southern Canada, throughout most of the continental United States, and south to Oaxaca, Mexico.

They are active day and night and are among the most diurnal of the cats. The chief prey of bobcats is hares but other small mammals, birds and occasionally even deer are eaten. They are important for controlling rodent and rabbit populations.
Bobcat

American alligator

The ‘alligator’ comes from the Spanish word for lizard – el lagarto. Alligators are part of a small group of animals called crocodilians. There are at least 22 species of crocodilians worldwide but only two of them are alligators.

The evolutionary origin of the alligator family can be traced back to the Cretaceous (65 to 145 mya) of North America, at a time when world was an ice-free hothouse and dinosaurs were the dominant megafauna.

During the early Tertiary, a period of uneven but gradual global cooling, there appear to have been multiple dispersal events of alligatorids from North America to Eurasia, which led to a diversified group of species in what is today Europe.

The American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) is a large aquatic reptile that inhabits wetlands areas of the southeast Atlantic and Gulf states. It is of only two species (Chinese alligator and American alligator) of the genus Alligator. Both are native to North America.

An average male alligator weighs up to 500 pounds (225 kilograms). A female alligator generally weighs up to 250 pounds (113 kilograms).

Adult alligators are grayish-black. Their undersides are light yellow. Young alligators are also grayish-black with yellow bands and spots.

The word alligator sends chills down the spines of many people. But the American alligator seldom harms humans. Left alone, the alligator goes about the business of being an alligator and in the Glades that makes it a very important citizen.
American alligator

Lynx

There are four living species of lynx:
* Eurasian lynx
*Canada lynx
*Iberian lynx
*Bobcat

The felids have short, arched skulls with elongated canines and an evolutionary reduction of molars above and below. Behind the enormous shearing carnassials little remains with which to chew. The cats stab slice and swallow. Lynx were once widespread in the forest and forest-steppe regions of the Old World.

Their vast geographic distribution extended from Sweden and Norway in the northwest south to the Iberian Peninsula, eastward through northern Italy, Switzerland, Austria and the Carpathians, Balkans and Caucasus to Turkey and east to northern Iraq and Iran.

The Iberian lynx is the world’s most endangered felid and thee only wild cat to be classified as Critically Endangered. About 250 individual remain in the wild in two small isolated populations in southern Spain.

Eurasian lynx are the most widespread of the four large carnivore species and are, together with wolverine, responsible for the greatest losses of livestock.
Lynx