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The Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries has released live-trapped raccoons in various counties of Southwestern Virginia since 1939 in an attempt to restock depleted areas. The results of this raccoon restocking program are shown in Table 1. A constant demand from organizations and individuals for an ever-increasing number of raccoons for restocking purposes has continued from year to year. For example, during 1946 a total of 587 raccoons were requested by the sportsmen in ten counties of Southwestern Virginia, namely: Wise, Buchanan, Scott, Tazewell, Grayson, Smyth, Roanoke, Montgomery, Wythe, and Page. Prior to 1946, raccoons for restocking were obtained in several ways. Trappers who were granted special permits by the Commission captured raccoons using steel traps, and a few animals were collected alive by enterprising hunters who preferred to capture the creatures rather than shoot them from trees. In addition, live-trapped raccoons were purchased outside the State, principally from Florida. It was felt, however, that to meet the unprecedented demand for raccoons in 1946 a more intensive effort would have to be made. Many persons felt that raccoons live-trapped here in Virginia would be better adapted to conditions in the Commonwealth than would animals captured in swamps of southeastern United States. Therefore, a cooperative raccoon trapping and transplanting project was developed between the Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Virginia Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit. A live-trap was developed at the Research Unit for use in this live trapping project and 92 traps were constructed during the fall of 1946. All available evidence indicated that Princess Anne County, Virginia harbored as large a raccoon population as any other section of the state. The Game Commission had received numerous complaints from individuals living in this area regarding raccoon destruction, both to agricultural crops and to muskrats in the extensive marshes found in this section. The landowners claimed severe damage to their corn crops, and trappers reported that raccoons consistently destroyed muskrats, especially those rats caught in their traps. Taking these factors into consideration, it was decided that the trapping could best be carried on in selected areas of Princess Anne County. Permission was subsequently obtained from the Fish and Wildlife Service to live-trap raccoons from the islands of the Back Bay National Refuge during the period January 1 to March 15, 1947. At the end of this time the trapping operations were transferred from the islands to the mainland of Princess Anne County and continued until April 26th. After trapping operations were discontinued a study was made of den trees and raccoon breeding habits in Princess Anne County. Unfortunately, only limited information could be obtained from the trapped raccoons as they were shipped to the southwestern part of the state soon after capture. Of necessity then, this report is concerned principally with the development of a satisfactory live-trap, procedures used in live-trapping, holding and shipping raccoons, and an appraisal of various other methods employed in obtaining the species for restocking. However, some information was obtained on the life history of raccoons by daily observations and by handling the trapped individuals. / Master of Science

West Belle Pass Barrier is a barrier spit that formed during the last delta lobe progradation associated with the Lafourche delta complex. Located on the western flank of the Caminada-Moreau Headland, West Belle Pass Barrier and Raccoon Pass are located downdrift of the Belle Pass jetties. Morphological changes stemming from storms, jetty infrastructure, and an expanding tidal inlet are evaluated using historical shoreline data and imagery. Littoral transport around the jetties combined with inlet growth created a framework wherein sediment is transported through Raccoon Pass and sequestered as a flood-tidal delta. These events aided in the landward migration of West Belle Pass Barrier, which ultimately loaded and consolidated previously unconsolidated facies. A conceptual model illustrating the primary consolidation of backbarrier facies resulting from washover deposits during one storm is presented. The primary consolidation settlement associated with loading near-surface, water-saturated backbarrier facies is substantially larger than current subsidence rates.

The devastating Floods throughout Iowa in 2008 caused homes to be lost, people to be displaced, and cost billions in economic damages. This left State Officials pondering how to limit the damages of large magnitude floods in the future. From the legislative sessions following this tragedy came the Iowa Flood Center and funding through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (among others) to begin the Iowa Watersheds Project. The project was tasked with the planning, implementation and evaluation of watershed projects to lessen the severity and frequency of flooding in Iowa. One test watershed studied was the Middle Raccoon River watershed in West Central Iowa. To study the impacts of basin-wide flood mitigation strategies on the Middle Raccoon River watershed, the hydrologic modeling software HEC-HMS was used in conjunction with the geographic analysis software, ArcGIS. A model was developed and calibrated to best represent the observed hydrologic response at USGS stream gages located at Bayard, IA and Panora, IA. Once complete, a series of flood mitigation techniques were applied to the watershed model, and run with the 10-, 25-, 50-, and 100-year SCS design storms. These techniques include increasing infiltration by modifying land use, and applying a distributed storage system (ponds). Both practices are shown to have the ability to reduce peak discharge, from 4 percent to 56 percent, depending on the location in the watershed, the severity of the design storm, and the extent of the flood mitigation technique. Although research describing the effects of distributed storage and increased infiltration currently exist, this study details the process in which these effects can be modeled in a heavily agricultural Iowa watershed using a simplified lumped parameter model (HEC-HMS). With recent major flooding events in Iowa, the methods and tools in this report will be valuable in predicting the effectiveness of flood projects prior to project construction.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on June 8, 2009) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Abstract Non-pathological change in body weight and adiposity is one distinct adaptive feature that seasonal species undergo, and it can offer a novel way to study the mechanisms underlying body weight regulation and energy homeostasis. Changes in the expression and activity of metabolic enzymes are essential for the physiological adaptation seasonal species exhibit. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a key regulatory enzyme that controls the energy homeostasis both on cellular and whole-body level. In this thesis, the main focus was to clarify how seasonal adaptation affects AMPK and its downstream target in lipid metabolism, acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC), in different metabolic tissues of two model species with diverse wintering strategies: the raccoon dog and the Djungarian hamster. In addition, the effect of periodic fasting on the raccoon dog skeletal muscle was studied. It was observed that seasonal differences in AMPK and ACC expression were evident mainly in adipose tissues of both species. AMPK was down-regulated in white adipose tissue (WAT) of the winter-adapted raccoon dog, whereas in the Djungarian hamster WAT, the abundance of AMPK increased in response to winter acclimatization. ACC expression was maintained or increased in winter in both species. The seasonal changes in AMPK and ACC expression observed, in particular, in adipose tissues reflects the wintering strategy of the species and presumably facilitates the lipid usage and/or preservation during wintertime scarcity. Raccoon dogs were quite resistant to the prolonged wintertime fast, as no changes were observed in AMPK and ACC expression levels in the WAT, liver or hypothalamus between the fasted and fed groups. Skeletal muscle function also appears to be well preserved, as there were no changes in the expression of proteins involved in insulin signaling, and the fiber type composition and muscle energy reserves were not affected. This thesis offers novel information on protein level changes in metabolic adaptation. / Tiivistelmä Useat luonnonvaraiset eläinlajit ovat fysiologisesti sopeutuneet ravinnonsaannin vuodenaikaisiin vaihteluihin. Vuodenaikaisrytmiin kytketty rasvakudoksen määrän vaihtelu ja siihen liittyvät aineenvaihdunnalliset muutokset tarjoavat mielenkiintoisen tutkimuskohteen ruumiinpainon säätelyn ja energiatasapainon ylläpidon molekulaaristen mekanismien selvittämiseen. Oleellinen osa fysiologista sopeutumista ovat muutokset energia-aineenvaihduntaa säätelevien proteiinien ekspressio- ja aktiivisuustasoissa. Yksi keskeinen elimistön energiatasapainoa kontrolloiva entsyymi on AMP-aktivoituva proteiinikinaasi (AMPK). AMPK toimii solunsisäisenä energiasensorina ja säätelee energiametaboliaa koko kehon tasolla. Tässä väitöskirjatutkimuksessa selvitettiin talviadaptaation vaikutusta AMPK:n ja sen kohdemolekyylin, rasvahappojen biosynteesiä säätelevän asetyyli-CoA karboksylaasin (ACC), ilmenemiseen ja aktiivisuuteen eri kudoksissa. Mallieläiminä käytettiin kahta eri talvehtimisstrategian omaavaa ja eri lailla ruumiinpainoaan säätelevää lajia, kääpiöhamsteria ja supikoiraa. Lisäksi tutkittiin pitkäaikaisen talvipaaston vaikutusta supikoiran luustolihakseen. Tulokset osoittivat, että molemmilla lajeilla AMPK- ja ACC-pitoisuuksissa on vuodenaikaisia eroja erityisesti rasvakudoksessa. Supikoiralla AMPK:n määrä väheni talviadaptaation seurauksena, kun taas kääpiöhamstereilla talviakklimatisaatio johti korkeampaan AMPK-pitoisuuteen rasvakudoksissa. ACC-pitoisuus puolestaan säilyi samana tai oli korkeampi talviadaptoituneilla yksilöillä. Havaitut muutokset AMPK:n ja ACC:n ilmenemisessä kuvastavat supikoiran ja kääpiöhamsterin eroja talvehtimisessa ja havainnollistavat entsyymien oleellista osaa rasvavarastojen vuodenaikaisessa säätelyssä ja käytössä, mikä on edellytys eläinten selviämiselle yli talven niukkuuden. Lisäksi havaittiin talviadaptoituneen supikoiran olevan melko resistentti 10 viikon paastolle tutkittujen parametrien suhteen. AMPK- ja ACC-pitoisuus tai aktiivisuus ei muuttunut aineenvaihdunnallisesti oleellisissa kudoksissa (rasvakudos, maksa, hypotalamus) paasto- ja kontrolliryhmän välillä. Supikoiran lihasten toimintakyky vaikuttaisi säilyvän, sillä insuliinisignalointiin liittyvien entsyymien pitoisuus, lihasten solutyyppikoostumus tai energiavarastot eivät muuttuneet paaston myötä. Tämä tutkimus tarjoaa uutta tietoa proteiinitason muutoksista osana fysiologista sopeutumista.

Changes in abundance of interactive species can have cascading, community-wide effects (Soule et al. 2003). Raccoons (Procyon lotor) prey on a competitor for marine turtle eggs, the Atlantic ghost crab (Ocypode quadrata). Conservation of marine turtles often includes managing raccoons-the most obvious egg predator-which may have broader ecological effects, and unknown effects on egg predation. Neither the relationship between raccoons and ghost crab density nor the effects of ghost crab density on egg predation are well understood. I studied raccoon-ghost crab interactions and the effects of environmental variation on their activity during the 2007 marine turtle nesting season on Canaveral National Seashore, FL. My goal was to model predator activity and identify efficient management strategies to reduce egg predation. Raccoon activity increased with increasing habitat diversity and edge of the dominant cover type, coastal strand. Raccoon activity increased locally and became less variable near segments of beach accessed for human recreation, but activity was greater on undeveloped beach, where habitat diversity and edge were greater. Ghost crab density and size were primarily affected by sand characteristics and recreation but decreased with increasing raccoon activity in June, which may have contributed to sustained declines in ghost crab density. Hatching success of marine turtles decreased with increasing ghost crab egg predation, suggesting ghost crabs are an important cause of egg mortality and not merely scavengers on unhatched eggs. Egg predation by ghost crabs was unrelated to ghost crab density or size, likely a result of monitoring limitations, but raccoon activity increased with increasing egg predation by ghost crabs, supporting previous research and experimental evidence suggesting ghost crabs can facilitate secondary nest predation by raccoons. This indirect interaction has strong implications for marine turtle conservation, because its strength may increase with increasing ghost crab density, potentially negating the effects of raccoon removal.

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