Barbados Raccoon - Classification

Classification

In 1950, Edward Alphonso Goldman identified the Barbados raccoon as distinct species, a classification that has been challenged over the past years by other scientists, who assume that it was a subspecies of the common raccoon. This assumption was supported by a study of its morphological and genetic analysis in 2003 by Kristofer M. Helgen and Don E. Wilson, which indicated that the Barbados raccoon was introduced by humans just a few centuries ago. The study yielded the same result for the probably closely related subspecies Guadeloupe raccoon and Bahaman raccoon also living on West Indian islands. Therefore, the Barbados raccoon is listed as subspecies of the common raccoon in the third edition of Mammal Species of the World published in 2005.