Ary, Raymond Daniel2014-08-222014-08-222003-12-01http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14446/10573Many wildlife populations have been affected as a result of increasing human population size and increasing urbanization. Urbanization destroys and fragments wildlife habitat which may alter feeding behavior, home range size and use, population densit.ies, and genetic structure of many species. Genetic variation, inbreeding, gene flow (i. e. genetic differentiation) and relatedness of an urban, suburban, and rural population of raccoons (Procyon lotor) were examined using 9 microsatellite loci. Significant genetic differentiation (FsT ) was detected between all populations. Genetic variation as defined by (HE) was not significantly different between the three populations. Inbreeding defined by Frs was significant ly higher in MMWF than in BUSSE but not in any other pairwise comparisons. Due to male-biased dispersal and female philopatry, females within BUSSE and GP were more related than males. Fragmentation caused by increasing urbanization alters feeding behavior, densities, and home range sizes of raccoons but not genetic attributes.application/pdfCopyright is held by the author who has granted the Oklahoma State University Library the non-exclusive right to share this material in its institutional repository. Contact Digital Library Services at lib-dls@okstate.edu or 405-744-9161 for the permission policy on the use, reproduction or distribution of this material.text