Species
There are three species of raccoon. The common raccoon, also known as the northern raccoon, has a natural range from southern Canada to Panama, and has been introduced to continental Europe. Raccoons can live in the city or in the wild, and while they are not domesticated, they are on rare occasion kept as pets.
The tropical crab-eating Raccoon (P. cancrivorus) ranges from Costa Rica through most areas of South America east of the Andes down to northern Argentina and Uruguay.
A much rarer species, the Cozumel Island raccoon (P. pygmaeus), is native to Cozumel Island off the Atlantic coast of Yucatan.
Some raccoons once considered separate species are now thought to be the same as or subspecies of the common raccoon, including the Barbados raccoon (P. gloveralleni), Nassau raccoon (P. maynardi), Guadeloupe raccoon (P. minor), and Tres Marias raccoon (P. insularis) (Helgen and Wilson 2005). Procyon brachyurus Wiegmann, 1837 was described from captive specimens; its identity is undeterminable as the remains of the two animals assigned to this taxon cannot be located anymore and may have been lost.
Read more about this topic: Procyon (genus)
Famous quotes containing the word species:
“For my own part I think no innocent species of wit or pleasantry should be suppressed: and that a good pun may be admitted among the smaller excellencies of lively conversation.”
—James Boswell (1740–1795)
“Single-mindedness is all very well in cows or baboons; in an animal claiming to belong to the same species as Shakespeare it is simply disgraceful.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“The French manner of hunting is gentlemanlike; ours is only for bumpkins and bodies. The poor beasts here are pursued and run down by much greater beasts than themselves; and the true British fox-hunter is most undoubtedly a species appropriated and peculiar to this country, which no other part of the globe produces.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)