HOME-RANGE OF THE RACCOON DOG (NYCTEREUTES-PROCYONOIDES) IN SOUTHERN FINLAND

Home ranges, relationships between individuals and dispersal among raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) were studied in southern Finland in 1989-91. The average maximum home range, calculated by the harmonic mean method, was 9.5 km2 and the core area (85% utilization) 3.4 km2. There were no statistically significant annual, seasonal or sexual differences in the size of the average core area of adults, but the home ranges of juveniles in autumn were larger than those of adults. However, the maximum home ranges of adults were larger in autumn than in summer, especially those of males, which were conspicuously small in summer and large in autumn. The core areas of adjacent pairs did not usually overlap in the pup-rearing season, but in autumn some home ranges shifted and there was much more overlap. The home ranges of the male and female of a pair overlapped almost totally, and a male and a female sharing the same home range also travelled together or close to each other, thus supporting the idea that the raccoon dog is monogamous in Finland. None of the adults left the study area, but 38% of the juveniles were recovered further than 10 km from the marking place during the first autumn.