Kentucky fields, forests and wetlands support more than a dozen species of furbearers, a diverse group of wildlife with interesting life histories.
The river otter, beaver, raccoon, mink, and muskrat live in and around rivers, ponds and wetlands. The red and gray fox, coyote, bobcat, weasel, opossum, and striped skunk are upland species, living where the landscape is a patchwork of woods and fields.
Here’s some life history information and observations on five high-profile species:
Raccoon
The raccoon (Procyon lotor) is found throughout Kentucky. There are two subspecies in the state, with the smaller, paler, short-haired southern race found in far-western Kentucky.
Coloration varies from light to dark gray, with a bushy, furred tail, ringed in black and yellowish markings. The omnivorous, nocturnal mammal spends most of its time in trees. Intelligent and tough in a fight, the raccoon is both brazen and stealthy. Adults usually weigh between 10 and 25 pounds.

Raccoons prefer to live in hollow den trees but are found in mines, caves, abandoned buildings and barns. Mating occurs from January through March, with a 65-day gestation period. No
nest is made. Litters range from two to seven, with young weighing about three ounces. Raccoon young open their eyes at 20 days and are weaned at 10 to 12 weeks.
Raccoons feed on vegetable matter for most of the year but readily consume frogs, crayfish, turtle eggs, insects, fish and salamanders snatched from under rocks with their hand-like front paws.
If there’s a wildlife species in Kentucky with a public relations problem it’s the raccoon, and deservedly so.
Often portrayed as a cute creature with a ringed tail, white whiskers, bandit mask, and hand-like paws, there’s nothing shy and cuddly about raccoons. They are unwelcome pests in urban, suburban and farmland settings.
They take up residence in attics of old homes in tree-lined urban neighborhoods. They act aggressively towards pets in the backyard. They raid garbage cans and tear up gardens in suburbia, and eat their way into the wallets of farmers all across Kentucky.
They will decimate row after row of sweet corn bound for urban farmers’ markets and if raccoons can find a way into a chicken coop, they will come night after night, to kill and devour, even the largest of hens.
Raccoons have amazing dexterity. They can climb a chain link fence and reach around and unhook a latch.
Raccoon populations are high in Central Kentucky, but low to moderate in areas of the state that have a higher percentage of forested land and less human development.
In the wild they feed primarily on berries, nuts and seeds.
Red Fox
The Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) is an iconic furbearer species hunted for sport from horseback with a pack of dogs in the Inner Bluegrass Region since early settlement.
Native populations in the eastern U.S. were supplemented by the introduction of the European red fox during Colonial times. Today the red fox is the most widely distributed canid (wild dog) in the world.

Named for its reddish coloration, its tail, body and top of the head are all some shade of yellow-orange to reddish-orange. The undersides are light, the tips of the ears and lower legs are black, and the tail is bushy with a white tip.
Adults weigh from 7 to 15 pounds, but males in good habitat can be larger.
Like many wildlife species, red foxes prefer a diversity of habitats rather than large tracts of one habitat type. Preferred habitats include farmland, pastures, brushy fields, and open forest stands, where they frequently hunt the edges.
Red foxes eat a variety of prey, but mice, meadow voles, and rabbits form the bulk of their diet. They will also eat insects, birds, eggs, fruits, berries, and fresh carrion.
Red fox home ranges may vary in size with the abundance of food, the degree of competition with other animals, and the diversity of habitats. The average home range is between 1,000 and 5,000 acres.
Red foxes have high reproductive rates. The gestation period is about 52 days and pups are born during late February through April. An average litter includes five pups, which are born in a den that the adults dig themselves or that was dug by another animal. Female red foxes are called vixens and young referred to as kits.
Males bring food to the female until the pups can be left alone. The life expectancy of a red fox is about five years, but all fox species have a high mortality rate.
Bobcat
The bobcat, a.k.a., the “wildcat,” is the mascot of the University of Kentucky sports teams, and thus occupying a special place in the state’s storied culture.
“Bobcats are found throughout most of the state today but the species was considered rare as late as 1974. Populations are most concentrated in the eastern, western and south-central portions of the state,” wrote KDFWR Furbearer Biologist Laura Palmer, in a 2011 articles in Kentucky Afield Magazine.

The elusive, secretive species is shy and seldom seen during the day. Bobcats are crepuscular in activity patterns, most active around sunrise and sunset. At other times they rest in rock crevices, brush piles, uprooted trees or hollow logs. They may have multiple dens throughout their home ranges.
The bobcat’s coat is grayish to reddish brown with black spots or streaks. Its belly is bright white with striking black spots. Its six-inch tail is short compared to its overall body length of two to three feet. A large male bobcat may weigh 25 pounds. There are black hairs on the tips of its ears.
Bobcat tracks looks similar to a house cat’s track, but are larger, measuring about 1 1/2 to 1⅜ inches wide.
Bobcats eat mice, rats, rabbits, muskrats, opossum,birds, insects, reptiles, deer and beaver.
Bobcats stalk or ambush their prey. A stalking bobcat may take several minutes to move a few feet. Once ready to pounce, the bobcat moves with a sudden burst of speed. Bobcats are also agile tree climbers and good swimmers.
Home ranges of male bobcats are about twice that of females, and may overlap with multiple females.
Bobcats are solitary except for when they mate or when females are raising their kittens. During the breeding season to attract mates, bobcats vocalize with a high-pitched, unmistakable scream.
Bobcats are polygynous, mating with more than one female. This is why the range of a male bobcat overlaps with several female territories. Bobcats breed from January through March, giving birth 62 days after mating.
The litter may range from one to six. Kittens are born in nests of leaves or grasses within a brush pile or rock crevice. They emerge from the den when they are about a month old and stay with their mother until the next breeding season.
Coyote
It has just been in the past 50 years that the coyote (Canis latrans) has become established east of the Mississippi River.
Coyotes spread their range eastward from the Plains and Mountain West, filling the ecological niche of the gray wolf and red wolf, native species that no long exist here. It’s believed that the migration of coyotes into the southeastern US began in the 1950s, with coyotes moving into Kentucky, from states to the north and west, in the 1970s.

Some researchers believe that the severe winter of 1978, when the lower Ohio and Mississippi Rivers iced over, was a major factor of range expansion of the coyote into Kentucky.
Coyotes are very adaptable and now found in all 120 Kentucky counties. There are higher concentrations in agricultural areas, but coyotes have adapted well to the rural/suburban interface, and have been spotted in city parks in some large urban areas, where there are abundant prey species — small mammals and feral cats.
The coyote is about 24 inches tall at the shoulder, weighs about 20 to 50 pounds, and is about 3.3 to 4.3 feet long, including its fluffy tail. The fur is long and coarse and is generally grizzled buff above and whitish below, reddish on the legs, and bushy on the black-tipped tail. There is, however, considerable local variation in size and color throughout the U.S.
Noted for its serenades of yaps and howls, the coyote is primarily nocturnal, running with its tail pointed downward and sometimes attaining a speed of up to 40 m.p.h.
Coyotes are extremely efficient hunters, and their senses are keen. They are visual predators in open areas, but they mostly use smell and hearing to locate prey in thick vegetation or forest.
Coyotes take down deer by repeatedly biting at the back legs and hindquarters, the kill finally being made with a choking bite to the throat.
In rural Kentucky, the coyote is relentlessly hunted on farms because of its appetite for chickens, newborn calves, sheep and other domestic livestock.
Coyotes are wary and difficult to hunt because of their excellent vision, hearing and sense of smell.
Both shotguns and centerfire rifles are used when hunting coyotes.

To be effective on coyotes, a shotgun must be able to deliver tight patterns of large pellets at distances up to 70 yards.
Popular centerfire rifle calibers for hunting coyotes include .22-250 and .243
Choosing the proper place to set up is critical to success. Hunters should have the wind in their face, with a background that will break their outline. Camouflage head to toe, including face masks and gloves should be warn. Since coyotes may attempt to circle downwind, hunters must be able to see and shoot to their left and right.
Designate a caller and a shooter, and position the shooter in front of the caller, but within whispering distance.
Start a wounded prey calling sequences at low volume, since a coyote may be close by, then gradually increase the volume and intensity.
Battery-powered decoys that imitate a wounded rabbit are a popular choice. The cyclic action adds realism. The coyote’s attention will be focused on the moving decoy and not the source of the calling.
Position the decoy about 40 yards or farther in front of the shooter, depending on it hunting with a shotgun or rifle.
The coyote feeds mostly on small mammals but also consumes carrion. When available, coyotes eat wild berries and fruits.
Coyotes mate between January and March, and females usually bear four to seven pups after a gestation of 58 to 65 days. Births occur in an underground burrow, usually a hole dug by badgers or by the parent coyotes. Most dens are on hillsides with good drainage (to avoid flooding during rainstorms) and where visibility allows parents to watch the surroundings for danger. Young are born blind and helpless, but, after two to three weeks, pups start emerging from the den to play.
Weaning occurs at five to seven weeks, and both parents feed and care for the pups until they are fully grown and independent, usually at six to nine months of age. Young typically disperse in the fall, but some older siblings will help raise younger offspring, and family groups may remain together and form packs during winter.
Coyotes are territorial, and both members of a breeding pair defend the territory against other coyotes. The size of coyote territories varies among habitats and also depends on its abundance of prey. Most territories, however, range from 4 to 15 square miles.
Striped Skunk
Loudon Wainwright III immortalized the relationship between motorists and skunks in the 1972 folk ballad “Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road.”
Listen and watch at www.youtube.com
Driving rural backroads or highways through wooded suburbs, motorists are likely to see skunk carcasses in the road, especially in late winter during their mating season, when males are roaming around in search of mates.
The nocturnal mammals aren’t that fast or agile and have predominately black fur, so they get run over unintentionally on dark roadways. Motorists beware!

The skunk most common in Kentucky is the striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis), a native species found in all Lower 48 states, southern Canada and northern Mexico. There are 13 subspecies.
The medium-sized mammals have a stout build, with short legs, a small, conical head and a long, heavily-furred tail.
Adult males are 10 percent larger than females. Body weights range from four to nine pounds, though some robust males may tip the scales at up to 12 pounds.
Their back feet are flat, with bare soles. Their forefeet are armed with five long, curved claws adapted for digging.
The color patterns of the fur can vary greatly, but generally consist of a black base with a white stripe extending from the head which divides along the shoulders, continuing along the flanks to the rump and tail. Brown or cream-colored mutations occasionally occur.
Striped skunks are found in a variety of habitats, but prefer forest borders and brushy fields, near a pond, lake or stream.
They often sleep above ground during warmer weather, but dig dens below ground at the onset of cold weather. When the opportunity presents itself, striped skunks will also use dens abandoned by other animals.
Females with unweaned kits make use of underground dens in spring and early summer. In cultivated areas, striped skunks will often dig their dens in fencerows, where they are less likely to be disturbed by machinery or livestock.
In winter it is common for a single den to be occupied by multiple females and a single male. During severe cold the striped skunk saves its energy by lowering its body temperature, and depends primarily on its fat reserves to survive.
Their preference for semi-open lands puts them in contact with their only significant predator, large birds of prey, such as the Great Horned Owl. Foxes, bobcats and coyotes usually avoid striped skunks, but will kill and eat them when starving.
Striped skunks are omnivores, feeding on a variety of plant and animal matter.
Primarily an insectivore, the striped skunk most frequently consumes grasshoppers, beetles, crickets, and caterpillars. In the winter and spring months, the striped skunk will supplement its diet with vertebrates such as mice and voles. They are also known to eat the chicks and eggs of ground-nesting birds, including wild turkeys.
Like all skunks, the striped skunk possesses two highly developed scent glands, one on each side of their anus.
The oily, yellow-colored scent that they can spray at a considerable distance, consists of a mixture of thiols, odorous compounds that resemble the smell of garlic or rotten eggs, only worse.
Hunting and Trapping
The hunting and trapping of furbearers is a longstanding tradition in Kentucky during the late fall and winter.
Furbearer seasons generally open in late November and continue through the end of February. For 2023-24 bag limits, season dates, zones for specific furbearers, and regulations, visit fw.ky.gov.