A modelling approach was used to increaseunderstanding of the raccoon-rabies disease-hostsystem. This was achieved through the developmentand application of the Ontario Rabies Model (ORM).The ORM is a spatially explicit individual-basedmodel (IBM) that simulates raccoon demographics,rabies disease transmission and various rabiescontrol strategies. ORM assessment and validationresulted in the creation of a Raccoon EcologyDatabase (REDB), development of a novel approach todensity estimation from capture-mark-recapture dataand the incorporation of information theoreticmethods into model sensitivity analysis (SA). The ORMwas then extended to simulate and track maternal andbi-parentally inherited neutral genetic markers. Therevised model was used to quantify the effect of theNiagara River as a 50 % barrier on raccoon movementin the Niagara Region (43'N 79'W) to infer the effectof this landscape barrier on the spread ofraccoon-rabies. Model development and applicationhas increased understanding of the raccoon-rabiessystem and demonstrated the value of a modellingapproach for ecological explorations.