Malcolm Gladwell

Some years ago, when Michael Pettit was working on his ingenious article about raccoon erasure, he took a colleague out to lunch, Suzanne MacDonald, behaviorist and expert in animal cognition. He told her what he'd been learning about Lawrence Cole and the early raccoon studies. She, a fellow Torontonian beset by the plague of raccoons, was like, oh my god, how did we miss this?

By monkeys of North America, you mean they fill a certain ecological niche?

By monkeys of North America, you mean they fill a certain ecological niche?

Traveling to study monkeys was expensive. If raccoons were like monkeys, then living in Toronto was like living on safari. So McDonald caught the Lawrence coal bug. She began to study raccoons, and she's been doing it ever since.

Traveling to study monkeys was expensive. If raccoons were like monkeys, then living in Toronto was like living on safari. So McDonald caught the Lawrence coal bug. She began to study raccoons, and she's been doing it ever since.

McDonald has become one of the world's leading experts in raccoons, and in particular, the urban raccoons of Toronto, with whom I think she feels a strong kinship. For instance, I've seen people saying that there are 100,000 raccoons in Toronto. Where did they get that number?

McDonald has become one of the world's leading experts in raccoons, and in particular, the urban raccoons of Toronto, with whom I think she feels a strong kinship. For instance, I've seen people saying that there are 100,000 raccoons in Toronto. Where did they get that number?

McDonald told me that she was the origin of that statistic, and she just made a number up, which is exactly what a raccoon would do. She gets it. So after a century of waiting, I prepared to receive the good news about the raccoon's true intelligence from the source. I leaned back in my desk chair.

McDonald told me that she was the origin of that statistic, and she just made a number up, which is exactly what a raccoon would do. She gets it. So after a century of waiting, I prepared to receive the good news about the raccoon's true intelligence from the source. I leaned back in my desk chair.

How intriguing, I thought. Maybe the raccoon's super intelligence develops at a later age?

How intriguing, I thought. Maybe the raccoon's super intelligence develops at a later age?

This was not going well.

This was not going well.

I was at this point trying not to look hugely depressed, but McDonald just kept going.

I was at this point trying not to look hugely depressed, but McDonald just kept going.

Here, I should just say that there's a lot we still don't know about raccoons. And indeed, McDonald's still gets a lot out of studying them too, especially the particularities of urban raccoons. But still, I had wondered about this question for years. Hearing that raccoons were morons, actually, was kind of a bummer in my book. But you know who was thrilled when I told him about it?

Here, I should just say that there's a lot we still don't know about raccoons. And indeed, McDonald's still gets a lot out of studying them too, especially the particularities of urban raccoons. But still, I had wondered about this question for years. Hearing that raccoons were morons, actually, was kind of a bummer in my book. But you know who was thrilled when I told him about it?

Again, local man, Malcolm Gladwell.

Again, local man, Malcolm Gladwell.

Rats are very hardworking. You give them a task, and they will do it ad nauseum. They're happy to just keep getting the job done. They live in little warrens. You put a rat in a maze, it knows exactly what to do, and it's kind of like fine being in a maze. Problem solvers. They're problem solvers. They're sort of cautious about new things.