Hannah Griebling

And that could be driven by the fact that they are generalists.

So they eat a lot of different food.

That's why another reason why they are able to eat all of our garbage, because even in the wild, they will eat plants and insects and fish and everything they can get their their little paws on pretty much.

So raccoons

So in order to be a generalist, you need to be comfortable with like going after new food items.

And so that can make you, you know, as a species overall can make you neophilic and really attracted to novelty.

And so we do think that that is one trait that raccoons probably have.

And that also sets them up for success in cities.

Yeah, potentially.

I mean, like I said, they've been associated with cities or human settlements for quite a long time and actually expanded their populations westward as sort of westward expansion happened as well.

And there were more and more humans

settlements.

So yeah, it's it's a question I would love to have a solid answer to.

But I do think that a lot of their traits that they already had from living in their natural environment sort of set them up for success.

And then potentially they are, you know, those traits are getting honed by natural selection occurring in those cities.

Yeah, fair enough.

Yeah, yeah.

I think that that is one thing that makes them really special and why we are so fascinated by them.

And I think especially if you live in a big city, they are one of the ways that we can sort of interact with the natural environment.

And so I think that is one reason why we have such a great appreciation for them.