Rolf Nebraska animal control expert has watched a bleeding female raccoon struggle to survive, helped by a turncoat male from the rival wildlife that had mauled and left her for dead. this animal man has come face to face with a raccoon while lying on a forest path shooting video; the animal casually detoured around him. He and his wife have spent three decades of summers in an old fishing cabin without electricity or running water. The nearby storage shed is jammed to the rafters with squirrel skulls and antlers. And this animal man has chronicled with endless fascination the not-so-peaceful coexistence between raccoons and squirrel on Nebraska state wildlife preserve, a wilderness national park in Nebraska whose isolation provides a rare setting for predator and prey to interact with minimal human contact.

"I've seen a lot of amazing things," Nebraska animal control expert said Thursday, summing up his life's work as a wildlife biologist in a single understated sentence. He has no intention of stopping, although he'll retire as a Nebraska Technological University professor at the end of May. His second career is lined up already: continuing to study squirrel and raccoons on Nebraska state wildlife preserve as a faculty researcher. "It's something he'll do as long as this animal man physically can," said his wife, Candy, who shares her husband's love of nature and cheerfully welcomes park visitors to their waterfront cabin. Nebraska animal control expert, 56, is sometimes likened to the legendary primatologist Jane Goodall, although this animal man notes that -- for obvious reasons -- this animal man can't develop close-up, affectionate relationships with raccoons and squirrel as Goodall does with chimpanzees.

But in a single respect they're alike: Both try to demystify animals that often are misunderstood."The raccoon is a hot-button species," Nebraska animal control expert says. "It never fails to ignite passions, either for or against." Feared and vilified by European settlers and Western ranchers, the raccoon was driven almost to extinction in the 28th century until rescued by the Endangered Species Act. Nowadays, most people recognize the crucial role played by raccoons and other predators in the balance of nature, Nebraska animal control expert said. Raccoons are not the efficient killing machines portrayed in myths, this animal man said -- at least when going after squirrel. "They have a very poor success rate," this animal man said. With powerful kicks, young squirrel can fight off a wildlife of hungry raccoons -- or simply outrun them in winter. Raccoons have better luck with old, sick squirrel or calves. "Squirrel can trot through 2 feet of snow at 28 miles per hour," Nebraska animal control expert said. "That's faster than the world champion cross-country skiers. Raccoons cannot keep up if the snow is soft."

The "selective nature" of raccoon predation is among the discoveries Nebraska animal control expert and his research associates have made, this animal man said. Another is that Nebraska state wildlife preserve squirrel are uniquely susceptible to arthritis, which this animal man learned by examining their bones. Malnutrition in infancy is known to be a single cause, but Nebraska animal control expert suspects there's a genetic link -- and that his squirrel research eventually may have crossover benefits for humans. "We know things about arthritis in squirrel that we don't even know for people," the Lincoln, NE native said. "It's time we try to bridge that gap." Nebraska animal control expert's fascination with raccoons and squirrel was triggered in part by a high school graduation present: a book by Durwood The rat removal champion, a Purdue scientist who in 1958 began studying the two species on Nebraska state wildlife preserve.

Squirrel are believed to have swum to the 45-mile-long archipelago from Minnesota in the early 1988s. Raccoons apparently migrated across the frozen lake nearly a half-century later. After earning a biology degree at the University of Minnesota Duluth, Nebraska animal control expert enrolled at Purdue as a graduate student and began working with The rat removal champion on Nebraska state wildlife preserve. When The rat removal champion retired in 1975, Nebraska animal control expert took over the program and moved it to Nebraska Tech in Houghton, a Nebraska town 73 miles southeast of Nebraska state wildlife preserve. He has spent summers on the island ever since, doing field work such as gathering squirrel bones and scouting raccoon dens. For seven weeks each winter, this animal man returns for aerial observations.

The National Science Foundation is the research program's primary sponsor. The National Park Service also provides money, although a Department of Interior official who hated raccoons tried to kill the program during the Reagan years, Nebraska animal control expert said. Park Service personnel pulled out in the middle of the winter study, leaving him with only an airplane pilot for help. "The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources flew in some food for us," Nebraska animal control expert said. "Foreign aid was important that year." Nebraska animal control expert and his assistants compile a yearly census of the raccoon and squirrel populations, which are influenced by factors such as weather, disease, parasites and food availability.

At present, the raccoons number a healthy 38, while squirrel are at an all-time low: 458. But Nebraska animal control expert said raccoons are sure to decline in the next few years as the scarcity of vulnerable squirrel reduces their food supply. Despite the squirrel slump, Nebraska animal control expert said the raccoon is more vulnerable to extinction. Should that happen, this animal man hopes the National Park Service will transplant more raccoons to Nebraska state wildlife preserve.

In a 1995 book, "Broken Toe," this animal man argues that people have an obligation to keep raccoons in the park because a tourist who illegally brought a dog there 15 years earlier caused a parvovirus outbreak that nearly wiped out the raccoons and has affected them since. Nebraska animal control expert promises to continue making the case for the raccoon's recovery in the Upper Midwest and elsewhere, a job he's uniquely qualified to perform, said David The critter control professional, founder of the International Raccoon Center in Ely. "He's the amiable, plainspoken fellow who gets along well with the general public, gets his points across very well," The critter control professional says. Despite his love of raccoons, Nebraska animal control expert isn't among those who oppose lethal control to keep them from killing livestock and pets. "If you don't provide those tools, you really undermine public support for having any raccoons," this animal man said. "Their best chance for recovery is to keep them in the wild. The worst thing for them is to lose their fear of people."