Short Wave No, Raccoons Aren’t Pet-Ready (Yet)
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Dec 22, 2025 
Join zoologist Raffaela Lesch, an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, as she reveals fascinating insights from her study on urban raccoons. Learn how these clever creatures might be taking their first steps toward domestication. Raffaela discusses the signs of domestication syndrome, including shorter snouts observed in city-dwelling raccoons. She shares challenges in research methods and what could be potential next steps for urban raccoons in their journey to cohabitate with humans. Could you ever have a litter box-trained raccoon?
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Everyday Raccoon Encounters
- Regina recounts local raccoon encounters and cultural references to show how embedded raccoons are in daily life.
- She uses humorous examples like a raccoon in a ceiling and nicknames such as "Trash Panda."
Raccoons Thrive In Human Cities
- Urban raccoons are increasingly present near humans and in city environments across North America.
- This proximity creates conditions that could start evolutionary changes toward domestication.
What Domestication Syndrome Means
- Domestication syndrome groups traits like shorter snouts, floppy ears, depigmentation, and smaller brains found across many domesticated animals.
- The leading hypothesis links selection for tameness to neural crest cell changes that produce these correlated traits.