Humans’ ongoing expansion into natural environments might be triggering the evolution of a new household pet, one that’s increasingly comfortable in the urban spaces we create. Researchers from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) noticed anatomical changes in raccoons and wondered whether these little trash pandas are actually undergoing a domestication process simply by spending so much time around us.
Their study, published in Frontiers of Zoology, describes how urban raccoons have smaller snouts compared to their rural counterparts, similar to patterns seen in other domesticated species. Based on this discovery, we might one day welcome another species into our homes, enjoying their tameness and curiosity not just from a distance.
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Urban Raccoons Become Tamer and Grow Shorter Snouts
To investigate whether urban environments alone could start the domestication process in previously undomesticated animals, the research group focused on raccoons, which are an ideal species thanks to their widespread rural and urban populations. They analyzed nearly 20,000 images of raccoons from across the continental U.S., provided by citizen scientists and collected through iNaturalist.org.
A clear difference emerged between raccoons avoiding human environments and those thriving in metropolitan areas. Like dogs, urban raccoons displayed shorter snouts, likely because tamer individuals are better tolerated by humans and more successful in cities. What draws them closer to our dwellings in the first place, however, is our abundant and easily accessible garbage.
“Trash is really the kickstarter,” said senior study author Raffaela Lesch, assistant professor of biology at the UALR, in a news statement. “Wherever humans go, there is trash. Animals love our trash. It’s an easy source of food. All they have to do is endure our presence, not be aggressive, and then they can feast on anything we throw away.”
Domestication as a Natural Process
The research team notes in their study that many people think of domestication as a purely human-driven, “unnatural” process. But animals can also adapt to human environments on their own by seeking abundant resources and safety from predators. Over time, these conditions can lead to traits associated with domestication even without direct human involvement.
To thrive in this new niche, animals benefit from adapting to harmonize with humans, appearing tamer and less fearful. The researchers argue that these early stages of domestication are driven entirely by natural selection.
Their observations align with the Neural Crest Domestication Syndrome (NCDS) hypothesis, which suggests that animals undergoing domestication show similar anatomical and morphological changes that begin early in embryonic development. These shifts often appear as smaller skulls, floppy ears, pigmentation changes, and curly tails.
Raccoons Could Soon Be Popular Household Pets
This project was largely driven by 16 students under the supervision of their biology professor, who wanted to make her biometry class more engaging.
“I wanted to teach this class in a way that students would have their own data that they collect and analyze,” Lesch said. “The benefit is that I didn’t have to push students to complete the work. They were intrinsically motivated because they cared.”
Their work ultimately proved strong enough to be published in a high-quality, peer-reviewed journal, an impressive achievement for young researchers and a great jump-start to their scientific careers.
Next, the team hopes to repeat their study with other urban mammals, such as armadillos and opossums, to test whether similar domestication patterns appear across species. Still, their findings on raccoons highlight how humans’ presence alone can act as a driver of evolution, and who knows, may eventually bring us a brand-new pet.
Lesch added, “It would be fitting and funny if our next domesticated species [were] raccoons. I feel like it would be funny if we called the domesticated version of the raccoon the trash panda.”
Read More: The Rise of Cat Domestication May Have Started with Ancient Egyptian Sacrifices
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
- This article references information from the recent study published in Frontiers of Zoology: Tracking domestication signals across populations of North American raccoons (Procyon lotor) via citizen science-driven image repositories