Seed preferences and foraging by granivores at raccoon latrines in the transmission dynamics of the raccoon roundworm (<i>Baylisascaris procyonis</i>)
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Raccoons (Procyon lotor) habitually defecate at preferred sites (latrines). Feces at latrines often harbor eggs of the roundworm Baylisascaris procyonis, a parasite of raccoons that is pathogenic to numerous species of small vertebrates. Undigested seeds are also commonly found in raccoon feces, the composition varying with availability of seed types. Thus, feces at latrines may serve as a source of food and pose a mortality risk for small granivores. To examine this interaction, we manipulated the seed composition in feces at simulated raccoon latrines and tested for differences in vertebrate visitation rates as a function of seed type. Treatments involved placing seeds, including corn, cherry ( Prunus virginiana), dogwood (Cornus racemosa), and a combination of the three types, at simulated raccoon latrines. Using Trailmaster TM camera systems we documented 2406 vertebrate visits by 16 mammal and 11 bird species during 455 camera-nights. Small granivorous mammals, including white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) and eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus), were the most common visitors. Visitation by white-footed mice was significantly greater when corn, the most preferred seed type, was present in raccoon feces. Visitation by eastern chipmunks and other vertebrate species did not vary with seed type. Active foraging was documented for five vertebrate species and accounted for 10% of all recorded events. We conclude that raccoon latrines are routinely visited by a variety of vertebrate species, especially small granivores. Active foraging for seeds in raccoon feces is an important risk factor for transmission of B. procyonis to small vertebrates, and white-footed mice may suffer elevated rates of infection when corn is present in raccoon feces.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".