BULLETIN FLORIDA MUSEUM NATURAL HISTORY VOL. 38 PT. 11(9)


triangulation error, and 10% of all locations were actual sightings for which
habitat type was recorded without error. Locations that fell exactly on a boundary
(n = 12) were discarded, and for all other locations I counted the habitat type
within which the location fell, regardless of how close it was to the boundary
(White and Garrott 1990). The effect of errors in classification of habitat type of
locations is to lower the power of the tests to detect habitat selection (increased
Type II error rate) (White and Garrott 1990). As most of the tests in this study
comparing habitat use and availability detected differences, this was not a problem.


 RESULTS

 Habitat Use


 Use-availability analyses indicated that raccoons did not use all habitats
according to their availability. Sandhill was the most widely available habitat type,
although hammock and swamp combined, or all of the closed-canopy forest,
covered almost as large an area (Table 1). In the Friedman's test, ranks of habitat
availability differed significantly from ranks of habitats used (T2 = 23.316, df = 4
and 76, p < 0.01). In the multiple comparisons, the habitat types used fell into two
categories. Habitat types in the first category (swamp, hammock, and clear-water-
lake fringes) were used more than those in the second (old fields and sandhills).
Use of habitat types within each category did not differ. The rank ordering of
least-preferred to most-preferred habitat type was sandhill, old field, clear-water-
lake fringe, hammock, and swamp forest (Table 1).
 Proportions of habitats available and number of locations in each habitat type
differed for every animal except one (Female #9, X2 = 4.17; df = 3; p = 0.24).
Bonferroni confidence intervals demonstrated great individual differences in
habitat use, although an overall pattern emerged. The majority of individuals used
swamps more than expected (12 out of 18), hammocks (12 out of 20), and clear-
water-lake fringes (6 out of 8) in proportion to their availability, and sandhills (11
out of 19) and old fields (17 out of 19) less than expected (Table 2). Less than one-
third (n = 6) of the radio-collared raccoons accounted for two-thirds (67%) of the
locations in the sandhill. Only two males (#16 and 24) contributed 34% of the
total locations in the sandhill.
 Habitat composition of the mean male and female home range was not
significantly different ,2 = 6.99, df = 4 and p > 0.10) (Table 3). Mean number of
habitat types per male (4.63) and female (3.83) home range was not different (t =
0.659, df = 18, and p = 0.518). However, habitat use was significantly different
between males and females (q2 = 23.2, df = 4 and p < 0.001) (Table 3).
Differential use of the sandhill was the major contributor to the chi-square value,