• Posted November 30, 2025

City Raccoons Showing Signs of Domestication

That resourceful “trash panda” digging through your garbage may be more than just a nuisance — it could be a living example of evolution in progress.

A new study suggests that raccoons living near humans are showing physical changes in line with the earliest stages of domestication, much like the ancestors of dogs and cats.

The research, published recently in the journal Frontiers in Zoology, analyzed nearly 20,000 images of raccoons from across the continental United States.

The scientists, led by Raffaela Lesch of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, found a striking difference: raccoons in urban areas have shorter snouts than their rural cousins.

Shorter snout length is a classic physical trait linked to what is called "domestication syndrome." This is a group of physical changes — including altered coat color, smaller teeth, changes in the ears and tail and shifts in craniofacial shape — that tend to emerge as animals become more gentle, tolerant and less aggressive toward humans.

Lesch’s primary question was whether simply living near human settlements could trigger these changes in an undomesticated species. Her research seems to say yes, and she points to a simple factor as the key driver: human 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,” Lesch explained.

In an urban setting, raccoons that are calmer and less fearful of people are better at getting to the easiest food source — trash cans — than aggressive raccoons.

The food reward for tameness drives the physical changes in the snout and face shape over time, according to the neural crest domestication syndrome hypothesis, say researchers.

Lesch noted, “It would be fitting and funny if our next domesticated species was raccoons. I feel like it would be funny if we called the domesticated version of the raccoon the trash panda.”

The study is also notable for the extensive involvement of students, with 16 college and graduate researchers listed as co-authors on the paper.

The research team is now working to validate the photo-based measurements by 3D-scanning the university’s collection of raccoon skulls.

They are also expanding the project to study other urban mammals, such as armadillos and opossums, to see if similar evolutionary trends are at work.

More information

Mass.gov has more about raccoons.

SOURCES: University of Arkansas at Little Rock, news release, Oct. 16, 2025