They might be connect with trawl through your chalk , but raccoons are actually passably hygienic critters . When a lot of them are live in the same area , they all tend to poop in the same place , and it move around out that these raccoon toiletsgenerate an bionomics of fearfulness .
Known formally as latrines , these piles of poop can be either a potpourri for some beast or a risk for others . This is because while the raccoons slide by a lot of nut and seeds with their feces , which can become a food source for those so inclined , they are also riddled with sponge .
After spending years bet on out raccoon toilets , investigator have found that these latrine offer an easy picking for some species , but that many steer well readable due to the process known as the " ecology of fear " . The results have been publish inOikos .
This is where certain specie will change their behavior or movements due to a comprehend terror to their surroundings . In the case of racoon toilets , it seems to be the jeopardy of disease and parasites . Camera traps revealed that while the hardy rat would quite happily plunk in and out of the poop chomping on bits of it , those species such as birdie and rabbits that can get the roundworm raccoon carry steered well clear .
Researchers are slowly understand just how dominant and far-flung theecology of fearis , and how it can castrate not only the behavior of animals , but the geography and landscape of a place too .
The most famed exemplar is that of reintroduce wolf into Yellowstone , but a similar gist has also been found with tiger sharks in Western Australia . These vulture lurch the underwater meadows in search of food , think of that the turtle and dugongs that eat the grass are never in one place for a long geological period of time , and therefore the seagrass is never over - grazed .
This study take things a little further , investigating how the bionomics of awe linked in with that of parasites , in number assessing how disease can shape an ecosystem . When this is taken into account , it can help excuse a whole legion of otherwise intriguing puzzles in bionomics . For representative , the carcasses of herbivore are quickly scavenged , while those of carnivore are left to molder , and thus are a better provision of nutrients for invertebrate and plants . This is likely due to other carnivores annul the remains due to the high chance of catching diseases from them .
It seems that this behavior may be far more prevalent than is thought , and could be influence a whole host of processes .
