Hannah Griebling

There's always, there's always variation to behavior.

So, so not surprising there, but, but it was surprising that they were willing to still engage in that problem solving and innovative behavior.

Even when there wasn't a food reward,

directly resulting from that behavior.

So we do think that there is some sort of intrinsic motivation to the raccoons, much like if you're trying to solve a puzzle or a level of a video game or just that feeling of like...

when you have a curiosity and you finally get the answer, right?

So we think that sort of intrinsic motivation is present in, of course, humans and some other non-human animals.

And so we think that there might be some intrinsic motivation for the raccoons into engaging with these problems and problem solving.

Yeah.

So, yeah, definitely.

We think that it could be one of the reasons why they are so, so successful in urban environments and in suburbs, because if you are living in those areas, you have a lot of problems to solve.

So getting into garbage is like the classic one.

So can you learn how to lift the lid of a garbage bin?

If someone comes and puts a bungee cord on top of that garbage bin, can you figure it out again?

If you think of like a takeout container, we call that extractive foraging in my field.

So you have to remove a food item from a protective matrix like a takeout container.

So you need to figure out how to bust into that.

Yeah, figuring out latches.

I've had people send me videos of people of raccoons

coming through, you know, doggy doors in the middle of the night to eat their cat's food or whatever it is.