In 2004, raccoon variant rabies moved westward from Pennsylvania into Ohio. In an effort to prevent further spread across Ohio, USDA Wildlife Services expanded the Oral Rabies Vaccination (ORV) boundary west toward Cleveland. To assist the Wildlife Services ORV Program to better understand how rabies might move through an urban area, and to help develop the best vaccination strategy to stop its spread, researchers at the USDA National Wildlife Research Center initiated a series of studies. As part of these studies, we deployed 10 remote download GPS collars on raccoons in urban areas of Cleveland. Remote download GPS collars offer advantages and disadvantages over traditional VHF telemetry and conventional “store on board” GPS collars, particularly in urban environments. Raccoons may inhabit culverts or sewer pipes that are inaccessible to humans. As a result, collars programmed to drop off may be lost and the data never recovered. Remote download capability allows researchers to retrieve data without collecting the collar. However, remote download collars tend to be larger and bulkier than other models. Out of 10 collars deployed, 1 went missing within a day of deployment, a second stopped transmitting after 5 months, and one raccoon died (this collar was recovered and later re-deployed). Data collection of nightly locations from 8 collars is ongoing. Locations are downloaded every 5 weeks. Data collected to date suggests raccoons are restricting their space use to small green-spaces when available, but also may inhabit abandoned houses. We believe this research represents the first use of remote download GPS collars on raccoons.

The raccoon variant of rabies is distributed throughout the eastern and southeastern United States. Historically, the westward spread of raccoon variant rabies has been prevented by geographical barriers and the distribution of oral rabies vaccines (ORV). In 2004, raccoons positive for raccoon variant rabies were discovered beyond the vaccination zone in northeastern Ohio, suggesting the potential westward spread of the disease. To evaluate the potential westward spread of rabies across Ohio, we are employing two strategies: telemetry, and genetics. We are radio-tracking raccoons to determine which factors, if any, may be considered barriers or corridors to raccoon movement. In addition, we are collecting genetic samples from raccoons in urban and rural areas in 9 distinct regions of northeastern Ohio. These samples will be used to evaluate relatedness between raccoon populations. We hypothesize that the degree of genetic relatedness will be proportional to the distance separating populations. Populations showing less or more relatedness may be indicative of barriers or corridors to movement, respectively. Preliminary movement data suggest that raccoons are remaining within their home ranges in greenbelt areas, although some have traveled over 2.0 km into urban and suburban areas before returning. Genetic sampling is 45% complete, and analysis will be performed once all samples have been collected. The results from this study will provide a more thorough understanding of raccoon movement in northeastern Ohio. This information will allow researchers to recommend ORV bait distribution strategies to more effectively stem the westward spread of raccoon variant rabies.