Increase in raccoons harmful to environment

Photo by Andres Bedoya

Stephanie Feldman/Staff Writer

Photo by Andres Bedoya

With their masked faces, raccoons look almost like mischievous cartoon characters as they scurry around, using their little leather paws to open garbage cans and maneuver other tactile tasks.

The sight of them has become very common at the Biscayne Bay Campus dormitories.

Raccoons are a native species of South Florida, but their numbers in urban areas have grown significantly, especially in areas where large amounts of garbage and other food sources accumulate and are not disposed of properly.

BBC is surrounded by the native habitat of raccoons; forest, marshes, and the mangroves – yet numbers around the dorms have gone up.

Wei Ding, a hospitality grad student and RA at Bay Vista described seeing several.

“I saw a family of five in the hallway of the second floor when I went to take out my trash, but I think they’re cute,” Ding said.

While many find the clever creatures cute, one dorm resident, Karla Gonzalez, a freshman psychology major, admits to being scared of them. She recalls a time when one aggressive creature actually began to chase her and her boyfriend in the parking lot. She feels that they “shouldn’t be there” and are often mean and aggressive.

In addition to boasting a large population of raccoons, the area around the dorms has provided shelter to a growing number of feral cats, many of which are taken care of and fed by residents.

Also just as problematic, food left for cats is often taken by raccoons, which they see as an easy dinner.  As the numbers of both species swell, so does competition for food, habitat and space.

According to Kurt Kaloostian, an Administrative Lieutenant at the Office of Fish and Wildlife Commission, he believes that people feeding the feral cats is one of the contributing factors to the increase in raccoon sightings.

He explains that because raccoons are opportunistic feeders who will eat literally anything, they thrive in urban environments, even diving into dumpsters and garbage cans to scavage.

These raccoons have become acclimated and dependent on humans. Leaving food out for them and other animals is illegal and amplifies the problem.

Kaloostian mentions that while the raccoons on campus are not a severe problem, they can be a nuisance because of the messes they make as they forage in garbage cans, as well as the defecation they leave behind.

The main risk behind the increase in the urban raccoon population is that they are becoming more aggressive than those found in rural areas like the everglades.

Another concern is the fact that raccoons are a notorious carrier for the rabies virus, a deadly virus that can infect mammals, including humans.

Kaloostian also emphasizes that the feral cats commonly seen alongside the raccoons at Bay Vista present a danger to the wildlife in the area, as both species frequently kill and eat birds and their eggs, resulting in drastic decreases of bird and other small animal species native to South Florida.

Ultimately, Kaloostian stresses that while people think they are doing a good deed by feeding the feral cats, they are, in the big picture, harming the environment by disrupting the natural rhythm of that ecosystem and supplying an easy source of food for the raccoons.

He urges residents at the dorm to consider the harm they are doing to the delicate balance of the environment, and to stop feeding feral cats and other invasive species.

This, he hopes, will help to quell the numbers of raccoons on campus.

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