Trash Talking: Anthropogenic Resources Facilitate Raccoon Interactions in Urban Environments

Interactions between animals of the same species underpin many ecological processes, from reproduction to pathogen transmission. Habitat modification, such as urbanization, affects an animal's spatial behavior, altering interactions with both their habitat and conspecifics. Raccoon space use varies widely between urban/suburban and rural populations, with anthropogenic resources suggested as a key factor in shaping movement behavior and consequently, opportunities for conspecific interaction. Here, we use high-resolution GPS data to identify instances of close spatiotemporal proximity (i.e., co-occurrence), referred to as “contacts,” among raccoons in an urban greenspace in Brooklyn, New York City (NYC). To understand how resource patterning affects contact formation processes and evaluate possible spatial and demographic factors contributing to the types of contact observed, we evaluated the effect of proximity to different resources (including anthropogenic subsidies) on the probability of urban raccoon contact and assessed associations between the characteristics of urban raccoon contact events. We found that certain resources increase the likelihood of urban raccoons coming into contact, with the largest positive effect observed for anthropogenic resources. Shared characteristics across contact events suggest three main types of co-occurrence: (1) longer duration contacts between males near anthropogenic resources, (2) proximity between females near fruiting plants or while denning, and (3) transient interactions between males and females. We conclude that in an urban habitat, anthropogenic subsidies are important drivers of co-occurrence between raccoons, which interact dynamically with social factors to shape the characteristics, frequency, and distribution of contacts across the urban landscape. Our data have important implications for predicting the dynamics of contact-driven processes—particularly pathogen transmission—in urban raccoon populations.