What Happened To Squirrels and Raccoons?

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alsaqr

alsaqr

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Our hog infested deer lease is usually overrun with raccoons; squirrels are normally plentiful too. We haven't seen a raccoon in months. No raccoons in game camera photos either. Despite a bumper crop of pecans no squirrels are seen.

i can imagine the raccoons caught some disease, maybe rabies, and died off: But the squirrels?
 
One of my leases is over run with hogs. We also have a plethora of raccoons, heaps of pictures from the game cameras. Seems as if the older generation of hunters who followed the hounds at night have either gotten too old to hunt all night or have given up due to the high cost of keeping hounds.
 
alsaqr said:
Our hog infested deer lease is usually overrun with raccoons; squirrels are normally plentiful too. We haven't seen a raccoon in months. No raccoons in game camera photos either. Despite a bumper crop of pecans no squirrels are seen.

i can imagine the raccoons caught some disease, maybe rabies, and died off: But the squirrels?
Click to expand...

All the 'Squirrels' went to California to be with their own kind. The Raccoons....I can't help you with.
 
Here in Rhode Island I’ve see cycles of large populations of squirrels and small populations in the past fifty years. It seems to be the ebb and flow of nature. Raccoons, Squirrels and deer all thrive in urban environments. In your area perhaps they have moved out to avoid the hogs.
 
^^^Musta been typing this at the same time as post #8 was being typed......

Could just be the competition for food from the hog infestation.
 
Large numbers of both raccoons and wild hogs have co-existed on that very rural place for at least ten years. The raccoons have disappeared since September.
 
Squirrel and Raccoon both seem to be up this year here. I had trouble all summer and fall with raccoon, skunks, and possums getting into things around the horse farm. The haymows, cat food, and horse feed (stored in containers but some of the horses sling it out of their feeder onto the ground everyday) kind of attract things but it was exceptionally bad this year.
As annoying as that is to deal with I tell myself that at least it isn't hogs tearing up the hay field with the same frequency. Don't have to deal with those problems yet at least.
 
alsaqr said:
Large numbers of both raccoons and wild hogs have co-existed on that very rural place for at least ten years. The raccoons have disappeared since September.
Click to expand...

They are all over at my place eating the deer corn.

Seriously though, there is a small pack of red wolves on a Florida island that was overrun with coons before the feds put the wolves there. These "red wolves" are similar to coyotes although they are about 30% bigger. They have dug up sea turtle nests to eat the eggs, killed and eaten many fawns and greatly reduced the coon population.

Perhaps a coyote increase is to blame ??? I don't think the reticulated pythons have made it that far.;) They are the other predator that has decimated the south Florida fauna.
 
While coons can get diseases like canine distemper, that can decimate the population in areas where the coons are used to coming to bait/feeding stations, it don't explain the lack of squirrels. Ain't another land owner nearby puttin' out poisoned corn for the hogs is there?
 
If coon hides went back to $25-$30 @ I would be rich man. I have several cameras out on one farm and each camera will have as many a 9 coons in a picture. This is every night and almost all night long. You could run a good dog to death. I shot 4 one day while deer hunting and I wasn't sitting over a feeder. I was in sneak mode.

No shortage of squirrels either. I had 4 in the back yard this morning. Squirrels will migrate if the food supply runs out. I have seen several trying to swim one of our lakes during such a migration. Many didn't make it.
 
I have really no 'coons here. I lived about 7 miles away a couple years ago and in that area (more population) tons of 'coons. Both areas are over run with squirrel but where i live now i haven't seen a single coon. This area is thick with skunks though, maybe its related - i've captured 9 skunk this year alone and i can say with 100% confidence it isn't the same one. I have a decent opossum population too - i like them and leave them alone. Seems racoons find an area they like and stay there. A few years ago my buddy shot the biggest racoon i've ever seen on his porch, easily 30+ lbs, unusual kill too - shot just in front of the rear leg with a 60 grain sss 22 lr, ran 10 feet and climbed a tree, 30 seconds later he fell from the tree stone cold dead - that long 60 grain must have tumbled around pretty bad. In contrast i have had to shoot a coon more times than i would like to admit with a 22 lr and it was still trying to get away. I don't like them and relocate them to the big dumpster in the sky any chance i get.
 
I had a squirrel problem a few years ago. they chewed up my boat seats, chewed a hole in my gas grill hose, got in my attic, So I got a Have-A- Heart live trap and over the summer I trapped and released 30 squirrels into local woods. Peanut butter worked wonders, once I got two in the trap. hdbiker
 
I also think it could be barred owls getting the racoons and hawks getting the squirrels. I have Cooper's hawks chasing my squirrels all the time. Barred owls and large hawks give the turkey population a rough time. Large rat snakes can also get into the squirrel nests. Coyotes will kill anything they can catch including racoons, squirrels, turkeys, fox and fawns. Predators can completely eliminate a rabbit population. A 12 guage shotgun with a stiff charge of #4 copper plated shot will solve many problems.
 
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Feral cats, or cats in general?

I hate cats if they are not house cats. They will decimate all small wild life quickly. Won't take out full grown coons but will kill anything else they can to include the young.
 
We feed about 10 fox squirrels at our house and they are really fat on sunflower seeds, corn and acorns. About noon yesterday one of our squirrels was hit by a car on the County road in front of our house and was laying in the center of the road. About 2 o'clock my neighbor called and said that a bald eagle was sitting in a tree in front of my house and I told the wife that he wants that squirrel. About 5:30 the wife and I were watching TV and saw the eagle circling the road and in one deliberate swoop he went down and got the squirrel. He'll be checking every day for another squirrel.
 
During the week of June 24, 1937 the people of Dewey County, Oklahoma conducted a pest removal of animals that were creating problems. A total of 225 coyotes and 7,163 hawks and crows were removed. Prizes for the most successful participants were given including an automatic shotgun, 22 rifle and ammunition. The event was sponsored by the home demonstration clubs of Dewey County.
 
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