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
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/52155 |
| Date | January 1948 |
| Creators | Shaffer, Charles Henry |
| Contributors | Wildlife Conservation |
| Publisher | Virginia Polytechnic Institute |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Text |
| Format | i, [5], 89 leaves, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Coverage | Virginia, United States, Princess Anne County |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | OCLC# 29433978 |
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