Raccoon population decreased??

Just throwing this out there for curiosity… have any of you guys noticed any difference in your coon population?
In my area of south central Illinois, there has been a significant decrease.. I’m not the only person that has noticed.
Earlier this fall I found several young coon that were lying dead and no apparent signs of attack… then yesterday, while setting up some new permissions, I saw 2 dead adults, in the water that were hung up on brush… they were partially decomposed.
I’m wondering if this might have had something to do with the mysterious dog disease that has been spreading around? It’s possible that the younger coon I saw probably had parvovirus… but the adults were so decomposed that there was no way to tell.

Not in TN. The coon made the all year round list down here.

Distemper most likely had it here before I found dead coons everywhere mostly around dens and water.

Distemper wipes 'em out here every few years.

It's an annual event in this area.

I’ve had corn out since first of October. I’ve had 1 coon there one time Last year I had as many as 10 at a time. Well until I set dps

There isn’t any shortage of them here. Sounds like you had a distemper outbreak foxkidd, it’s just waiting to happen here, with the coon population so high.

Distemper took out the grey fox here too.....about 7 or 8 years ago. They have been very slow to make a comeback.

Every five to eight years it seems most die from distemper, I only got three coyote pups out of 23 coyote this year, distemper hit again

It seems like diseases in wildlife have increased in the last 20 years with bird flu, distemper/parvo, EHD, chronic waste, brain worm, white nose. I’m sure some of it has been around forever but it seems to of increased lately. You hear about it more now but the wildlife agencies talk less about it. If not for us stumbling upon these issues we would know even less of what’s happening.

The lack of trapping and population control is the cause. Nature takes care of itself when we dont.

I have noticed there were not as many here in Northern Wis.

They're down in my regular areas here too. Seen plenty of dead ones curled up by water. One place that I caught 19 coons out of last year, I only caught one this year, and it had a great big festering oozing sore on it's side. I put it out of it's misery and tossed it in the bush.

Bingo. I remember growing up you could usually associate distemper outbreaks to low fur prices.

Had the same finding dead coon around the farm in late winter the first probably 2nd year we had it. Looked it up. Figured distemper spreed due to high population. At the same time the boys got on a kick watching u tube trapping shows and I realized I had not taught then to trap as I had not traped in years. So off to nicks feed store and over 6 months and a few k I had a small collection of traps and the boys were learning how to trap.

Same here.....3 years ago I could get 10 or more and now I don't find any..I just box trap around my place and some friends places...

There's a kid in Iowa who has over 2,100 + raccoons as of now this season. No shortage there.

True seen dead coon on the hwy this spring/early summer First time in many years this fall nothing We had snow off and on since October no tracks on the creeks and mild weather still dominates No damage in the cornfields either so can't be any porkies Once in awhile i see 3-4 blue jays thats it for birds and squirrels, The people i know that feed birds year around say the same As far as coyotes first i can remember seeing a gutpile last for 2 weeks before disappearing

We had distemper run through central illinois by us this summer. I caught 48 coons less than 50 yards from my house and was catching them right up until the drought ended. Then when the rain started this summer after that drought all the coon were gone. I have seen 1 coon track this trapping season. I saw several dead ones and shot one stumbling around the field in front of my house. Not many trappers or hunters here anymore so the populations get pretty high then crash due to disease. When the numbers are high you get a lot kits too.

Yes sir I’m in very southern Montgomery county and there is a definite decrease in sign for sure

We’ve had what I consider an unhealthy coon population for the last few years Always some distemper in the population over the years but our coon numbers are probably the lowest I’ve seen in decades.A lot of the coon here den in the limestone bluffs in steam holes which I think get distemper in them and basically spread to coon over the course of several years and ruin the denning site.

This is correct
Natures way of re setting,when trappers arent doing the job.

Way less skunks here very few, hawk numbers are way down also past years seeing 2-3 per mile was common heck they might of starved to death.

i totally agree here this yr has been the worse i have seen for coon populations. trapping was low and calling has been even worse. up here alot of landowners poison coon too. i have found lots of coon dead in the woods this winter . we have lost a huge amount to distemper. i have never seen it this low in my area before.

Sign was massive around me this spring, summer and into the end of corn silage harvest. I had lots of sign old and new on my stream lines in early November, but there seems to be less sign and fewer coon and dead coon on the roads the last couple of months based on earlier sign. If coon do some communal denning and disease hits will most die in those dens or come out to be near water etc.? I did not see one dead coon on my line this fall.

Bryce

I still can’t figure how limits are being put on species more and more if hunting/trapping is reduced why draws on species that never needed them before? Is it the influence of the AR people being brought into the Game Depts more?

My catch is off about 50%. Most of the ones I’m catching are 2x,3x, and 4x. Nice run of coon, just not as many.
Probably came accross 20 dead ones so far.

Been talking about it over at Iowatrapperstalk for a while now.
I haven't been able to trap this year so I don't have any real knowledge about ti. Did have distemper here last year.
just

Been getting calls for sick raccoons over the holidays, none took me up on the holiday price lol.

But the one I picked up today at regular price was not distemper. I can't say it was rabies but if I had to guess I'd say rabies.

Five or six years ago the state was airdropping bait pellets laced with some kind of rabies vaccine in them. Just a few hundred yards from my cabin. We're loaded with coon.

Yes in NY. Myself and my friend also have remarked on an apparent coon decline this year.

Same thing on my 'line...very few coon but more possums than ever.

The telling tale for coon numbers will be this spring and early summer. If there are fewer coons we will certainly notice that numbers drop then.

Bryce

We have coon like that here regularly now get a call to dispatch a few a month, dnr said it was maybe some kind of brain worm / infection they spread to each other when the population gets to high. Don't quote me on the disease part all I know is I only ever touch em with them shovel I use to bury em

Coon numbers are definitely down in my area. Have not found any dead ones though like some of you have.

[quote=Tommyran]There's a kid in Iowa who has over 2,100 + raccoons as of now this season. No shortage there. [/quote
I would call him out, lol

It sure seems that way

Coon numbers are down here also. I found a couple dead ones near a water holes late spring /early summer and shot one in my back yard that was acting funny in the middle of the day. I have only caught 2 this year in areas I would have 10-15 normally.

Coyotes seem to be down also. I normally catch 4-5 on my property and have only caught 1 with a bad case of mange so far.

Nate, no need to call him out, you can watch him catch them every day. NextGenTrapper on YouTube.

The kid is for real, and an impressive young man. He is putting a hurt on the coon population the hard way!

I believe it especially in a state where you can trap road right of ways legally makes a lot of difference and I believe in Iowa you can , Illinois it’s no of legal

He is indeed for real and has seen several dead coon and mentioned he thinks it distemper.

Skunks are down coons are down hawks are down here will it make a difference not much because of the lack of habitat.

It would seem to be localized here, Around my place definitely down , coon trails a few and far between, but west of here 10 miles I have heard they are still thick.

At my bird feeder after I caught 39 of them!

Mother nature is way more cruel than most other options Mother nature plays no favorites and cuteness has no effect on the amount the animal suffers before it dies of some disease In the mid 1980' rabies just about wiped out the coon population here And it also hit skunks groundhog some domestic farm animals But for some reason it did not affect foxes a much . It really took about 5 years for the coon population to rebound .The truth is what trappers do to help keep wild animals in control is priceless both for the animals and the people k

I've saw less wildlife than normal the last 5 years.

Happens virtually every year here to varying degrees. Ive always thought it would spread like wildfire given the coon overpopulation but instead just seems to end up being sporadic. One area will get hit hard and 30 miles away no sign of diseases. My areas been down last 3-4 years. This summer was probably worst in recent times but think worst ever recall was around thirty years back —-a few years after the 87 market crashed. But there are some trap pluggers still around now. Primarily big males. Basically no young ones left this year and few females. Hopefully it’ll keep them in check fir awhile longer

found about 3 dead ones by accident just deer and duck hunting, probably something going around the midwest, here in NW ohio is where I found them. i suppose it’s a disease, but honestly we need it, the raccoons will always come back but it’s harder to get wild turkey and pheasant populations back.

MChewk No idea if Gary Armstrong is still around but if he is he kept the most detailed trapline records of anyone I ever met. We trapped some adjoining ground and when discussing catch rates we also started to notice finding dead of the year close to water with no apparent injuries. I haven't seen him in years now but I do remember his catch on coon got to the point he bought an Iowa license.

Late 80's early 90's Paul Kelly and I cornered state biologist about rat and coon population losses. Long story short they were nothing of interest being they were not ducks, turkey or deer. He couldn't get away from us fast enough.

My wife did a long line in Iowa one year and I did a ride along as I grew up in the area. I noted the population was way down from what it was when I grew up. When I was in my early 20's there were coon trails beside every telephone poles but no more. I am not buying distemper as there was no puffy noses or matted eyes along with other missing signs.

There have been discussions on past threads where species like predators, and others not including rabbits, rats, voles etc. that can regulate populations to somewhat of an extent by litter size and or having a higher percentage of unbred females etc. This is a self regulating system that can be based on environmental conditions that impact reproductive hormonal systems etc. I don't know if coons would fall into that mode, but it would not surprise me if they did. I have never been a big time coon trapper. Since 1980 I have probably caught 3-4000 coons total with the last 10 years being only about 200. Early in my trapping I caught very few large or what I called barren females. I have caught more of those the last 10 years then I ever caught earlier when coon trapping pressure was much higher.

Bryce

guys find a dead one get all excited theres a lot that die that no one ever sees they die 12 months a year and decompose how much time does a hunter or any outdoor person average in the woods a year guys think they control the population mother nature does a lot more than any trapper hunter out there she workes 12 months a year