Predicting the potential invasive range of raccoon in the world

Invasive alien species are considered to be one of the most important causes for the extinction and the reason for diminishing of the wild native species. Considering that nowadays the raccoon (Procyon lotor, Linnaeus 1758) is found in several European and Asian countries where it can amplification its ranges remarkably, but it is actually native to North and Central America. Here, we use the Maxent model to generate a preliminary map of the potential distribution of the raccoon around the world and enumerate its relative risk of invasion across all countries. In a study, MaxEnt predicted a significantly large area as the eco-climatically suitable habitat for the raccoon in the world. The predicted habitats are consistent with the wide-ranging habitat associations of the raccoon in its well-established sites. The results identified the hotspots of the raccoon invasion and indicated the possible dispersal pathways. Results also showed that both precipitation and temperature variables were strongly correlated with the raccoon distribution and the species would be absent in cold environments with average sub-zero temperatures.