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Raccoons are lovable little animals with their grey to brown coats and black-masked eyes. They are native to North America, but have been introduced into Europe for almost a hundred years, especially in the region of Austria and Germany. Their preferred habitat is deciduous woods and forests. However, some individuals think that they make decent pets as well.

An adult raccoon is the size of a middle-sized dog - about knee-height and weighing up to around 35 pounds. Their front paws are about the size of a child's hands and they have five fingers on each hand or paw, which enables them to open doors and lift lids et cetera. This makes them pretty adept thieves and reinforces the image of a masked highway robber.

Raccoons will consume almost anything - they are omnivores. They not just eat fruit, nuts and berries, but they will also take small birds, eggs, rodents, amphibians and fish. They are also fairly partial to cooked food and will go through a dustbin or garbage heap looking for the left-overs of human meals. They also steal pets' food that has been left out in the garden.

Domesticated raccoons usually wash their food before eating it, whereas this strange habit is hardly ever witnessed in the wild. Raccoons can carry very serious illnesses one of which, rabies, is perilous to humans, but they also carry roundworms which can be passed on to humans with little effect on our health. Most raccoons die of predation or canine distemper. They can infect domestic dogs with the deadly canine parvovirus.

If you see a wild raccoon in your backyard, you should report it to the authorities so that it can be checked for disease as about 38% of rabies cases in America come from raccoon bites. Raccoons do tend to bite quite freely.

If you find an orphan raccoon while wandering in the woods, it is very tempting to take it home, but there is a fairly high danger of it having rabies. If you want a raccoon for a pet, it is better to get one from a breeder.

They are notoriously hard to train. In most states it is illegal to keep a raccoon as a pet, but where it is permitted, the owner normally has to get an exotic pets license.

You must have them vaccinated against rabies and distemper and treated for roundworm before you take one into your home. If you purchase from a dealer, this ought to all ready have been done for you.

Raccoons make difficult pets because they are in essence nocturnal creatures. They can be trained to sleep at night but it is not natural for them. Their diet can be a problem as well. Because they consume 'anything', they need a very varied diet including live animals like frogs and mice from time to time. Pet raccoons often get overweight due to excessive feeding and a deficiency of exercise.

Pet raccoons should not be re-released into the wild if you find them too a problem to take care of, because they will not know how to look after themselves. A pet raccoon is for life, which can be twenty years.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a number of subjects, but is now concerned with distemper in raccoons. If you want to know more, please go to our site at Distemper Vaccines

Pheasants can be found in numerous places around the world with many unique colors that will identify a species. These birds demand really good habitat for success. In some areas the bird thrives and others it won't. The wildcat is the most dangerous predator to the wild pheasant. It can jump off the terrain and take one right out the air at enormous speed and be consuming a snack in seconds. In spots that have raccoons and snakes, the eggs will be in peril also.

Every year there is more pheasant farms offering hunting to the general public. In addition to that, they provide a good habitat for pheasants to populate and grow. The farms will raise the young birds till they are big enough to release into the habitat, insuring a strong population for hunting.

Good hunting dogs are imperative to being successful on the hunting range. A good dog will not only find the bird, but also scare and retrieve it for you. It is a fairly wide consensus that Labrador retriever's make the best pheasant hunting dogs. They are very good at finding birds and retrieving the ones that are downed by birdshot. It's important to make sure your dog is in good shape before taking it out hunting for the first time. Your dog needs to build up to it because it will be chasing a lot of game and it can be a bad experience for a dog if it is not used to it.

During the hotter times of the year you will find a lot of pheasants congregating around water. They enjoy ponds, creeks, streams, faucets, irrigation areas as well as pumps. Just like fishing and other hunts you can expect great hunting early in the morning or late in the afternoon. The early morning hours seemed to be the best time of the day to take a lot of pheasant because they're just waking and not as alert to danger because they are out gathering food.

If you see birds moving around a lot, it is usually best to wait till they settle down to begin hunting. When you and your dog first arrive, there will be a lot more action on part of the pheasants to move and find shelter. Just hold still and wait for things to calm down. It is important that you have tracking skills and have scouted the area prior to going hunting. On a pheasant farm you don't have to worry about finding birds as they are often releases just hours prior to your hunt.

For more on pheasant hunting and Bird hunting lodges. Get your bird dog ready for a hunt of a lifetime.

More information on pheasant hunting and Bird hunting lodges. Get your bird dog ready for the bird hunt of a lifetime.

Many hunters like to get out on a Saturday afternoon in search for wild pheasant. Phasianus Colchicus is the scientific name of the common pheasant. Many hunters call it simply pheasant or English pheasant.

Living in wooded locations, pheasants will eat larvae millipedes, snails, earthworms, grasshoppers, and spiders. All these soft animals and insects make for a delicious treat for these exquisite birds. They like to also feed on a variety of grains and berries. At night, these gorgeous fowl will roost up in the trees and at daybreak they will peck the ground for some tasty treats.

Partridge, quail, or ruffed grouse may also be referred to as pheasants by some. In the U. S., the ring-necked pheasant were introduced in the 1800's. The male, known as the cock, has brilliant brown plumage with a green, purple marking with a white ring around the neck. The female, also known as the hen, has a duller brown plumage. The male and female pheasant has two things in common, they both have short rounded wings and very strong and stout beaks with a yellowish appearance. The male can have a tail over 20 inches long and it often has long sharp spurs that often protects it from other wild animals.

Pheasant populations are sensitive to land development as well as clear cutting and environmental pollution. For the sake of the future of pheasant's in the United States, there are more and more pheasant farms being started to help boost the local bird populations. Pheasant farms guarantee a better solution for the pheasants to survive and flourish so that future generations can enjoy the bounty of the land.

The Great Plains has a huge population of pheasants that live in the open grass prairies and around the old farm houses. The birds absolutely love to peck around on the grasses for grains and insects in the fields and roost around old homeplaces and farming implements. The United Kingdom has a lot more pheasants than we do here in the United States. In the United States, it is estimated that there are about 10 million pheasants while in the UK there are approximately 35 million.

Males do a strutting movement in the spring of the year to entice a female into courting. Strutting is when a cock puffs his feathers and his head will become bright red and engorged. Males will fight each other to the end for breeding rights with the females.

Male birds are polyamorous because they will mate with more than one female throughout their lifetime. It is common to find more than one female following the male at any one time. The females nest on the ground and will have about 10 eggs per nest. The incubations period last between 23-26 days between April to June.

For more on hunting pheasant and Bird hunting lodges. Get your bird dog ready for a hunt of a lifetime.