Contact rates of raccoons (Procyon lotor) at a communal feeding site in rural eastern Ontario.

Intra- and interspecific contact rates of 12 adult (five females, seven males) raccoons (Procyon lotor) were recorded while these animals fed at a rural garbage clump 40 kin north of Kingston, Ontario, Canada from 15 June to 5 September 1995. While raccoons were being observed, they bit, and were bitten, by their conspecifies an average of 0.99 (+/-0.21) and 1.28 (+/-0.21) times per hour, respectively, while feeding. Based on mean nightly contact rates (which included time when raccoons were not observed), raccoons bit one of their conspecifies once every, 3 nights while feeding. The mean rate of bites made and received per hour for males was not significantly different from lactating females. There was no detectable difference between the mean rate of bites made and received per hour for raccoons which regularly versus occasionally fed it the dump. No interspecific contacts were observed, though raccoons and striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) often fed at the dump concurrently. The contact rates in this study are the first to be calculated Cor raccoons directly from field data and will be useful as a point of reference for modeling rabies spread ill raccoons in areas with similar site characteristics.