Subject: Re: rampant raccoons
Date: Apr 18 09:33:35 1995
From: Michael Smith - whimbrel at u.washington.edu


On Mon, 17 Apr 1995, Mike Patrick wrote:
> I would second the motion that a potential GBH nest was abandoned due to
> raccoon interest; because last night I lost my favorite cat to one of the
> marauding beasts :( This is my second spring (the first with what was once a

> Any comments from those in the know about how much of a problem raccoons are
> for birds? And for those repressing (or not) comments about cats, I have seen
> mine catch one bird (a House Sparrow at that) in 9 months.

> More pointedly, what's the comparison of bird predation between 'coons and
> cats?

Mike, are you sure it was a raccoon that got your cat? I mean did you or
someone else actually see it get killed by a coon? I ask because coyotes
also scavenge Seattle neighborhoods at night, and a study conducted 2
years ago by Tim Quinn found that 15% of their diet consisted of *CATS*.
Over half of their diet was vegetarian, mostly stuff found in gardens
(tomatoes were a favorite, I think). The diet data was based on scat
analysis. Cats were the major meat source for urban coyotes.

____________________________
Mike Smith
Univ. of Washington, Seattle
whimbrel at u.washington.edu
http://salmo.cqs.washington.edu/~wagap/mike.html