Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Broadcasting intimate details and useless information from an undisclosed location in New York City. The Last Show with David Cooper Raccoons are puzzling animals. That's because according to a new study, they solve puzzles just for the fun of it. See what I did there? So if a trash panda causes mischief, is that intellectual curiosity? And if it is, it raises an important question.
Are they just freeloading dumpster bandits or are they furry little scientist problem solvers? We're about to discuss everything about raccoons with one of the world's foremost
raccoon scientists animal behavior and cognition researcher at the university of british columbia hannah griebling hannah i know you wouldn't describe yourself as one of the world's foremost raccoon researchers but i feel you are welcome to the show oh thank you thank you yeah there are only a few of us out there so wait it's a relatively small community do you all know each other we do yeah there's got to be some guy or some gal out there who's in the raccoon community here like oh you're so annoying
No, I actually, I know them all. Half of them were my Latinates. So we all get along pretty darn well, actually. All right. I'll stop trying to cause drama in your community. Sorry to tell you, yeah. Okay, let's get to the science of it. When people hear raccoon intelligence, we just think of them being geniuses at opening up trash cans and then opening them up and causing chaos.
But how smart are they really? Like what kind of level of intelligence does it take to open up a complex mechanism
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Chapter 2: What unique behaviors do raccoons exhibit when solving puzzles?
on a trash can. Yeah, yeah. So it's definitely something where we are still learning so much about them, exactly how smart they are, because there really hasn't been a lot of formal research done with raccoons and their cognitive abilities. So there were some researchers in the early 1900s that attempted to make them lab animals, like rats and pigeons were used for cognition studies.
And they kept... True to raccoon form, they kept escaping their enclosures and causing lots of problems for the researchers. So they were kind of given up on as a research species for quite a bit of time. And then now technology has kind of caught up to where we have all these really great night vision cameras. We have really cool microchips that we can use to permanently identify them.
And so the research now into raccoon cognition has really started expanding in the last 20-ish years, which is really exciting as a scientist. And I'm so sorry, I forgot your original question. Oh, no, no. I was just like, how smart are... There is no question. The question is, how smart are they actually? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I always tell people, you know, there's some people that think like, oh, they can like pick a lock and get it open. You know, they're not there. They're not there yet, but they certainly are really excellent problem solvers. And their main adaptation for foraging, which in the natural environment, they would be foraging. Is it the thumb? Is it their thumbs?
So common misconception, they don't actually have a true thumb. Wait, you're not going to believe some idiot with a microphone on the radio versus a raccoon scientist? I'm pretty sure I'm right and you're wrong. No, I'm kidding. What is that fifth digit then? It is a common misconception.
So to have a true thumb, you have to have this right angle here when your thumb sticks out to the side like primates and humans do. And raccoons have wrong angle thumbs is what you're saying. Yeah, exactly. That fifth digit just sits up by their what would be our index finger. So it sticks out a little bit, but it's not a true thumb at that right angle.
But they still have a ton of dexterity in those forepaws, primarily because when they are foraging in their natural environments, they are feeling around in streams and in leaf litter and things like that. And so They have a lot of nerve endings in those forepaws. And so that is like their main sense, the main way that they gather information about their environment and they capture food.
And so that adaptation sets them up really well to live alongside us because they are able to manipulate objects in their environment in the same way that humans are. So, even without that thumb, they are pretty dexterous, but there is a limit to what they can open, certainly. Got it. It's a false thumb. Is that what you call it?
um i i wouldn't i would just say it's just a digit that is fine fine fine fine yeah yeah it really doesn't look like all right i'm not brushed up in my raccoon science let's get to your study where raccoons are given problems to solve and marshmallows to eat should they complete the puzzles yeah that's all fine and well what happened after they got their marshmallows were they still interested in solving these puzzles
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Chapter 3: How do raccoons compare to other animals in terms of intelligence?
And we had nine because we had three easy solutions, three medium level solutions, and then three hard solutions or what we thought would be hard for them to solve. And I put the box in with them. This was done with captive raccoons. And I left it there for 20 minutes. It had one marshmallow inside, but three access points, essentially.
And when I came back, I was actually surprised that they had opened all three solutions on the puzzle box within that 20 minutes. And so that was something that we found most of the raccoons in the study did. I think it was only one individual that only opened. just one solution at the medium level, but still opened multiple solutions at the easy and hard. Honestly, relatable.
I feel like there are those among us, you know, our friends are all productive and studious and then we got a lazy friend too. 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, you know, 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, you know, engaging with these problems and problem solving.
I imagine this would serve them well, this curiosity in urban environments where there's gates and locks and trash bin handles that are complicated and sneaky ways to get, well, trash. After all, they are trash pandas. That's their official Latin name, I think. Yeah. So, yeah, definitely. We think that it could be one of the reasons why they are so popular.
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 on top of that garbage bin can you figure it out again um if you think of like a takeout container we call that um
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, 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.
So that behavior could really benefit them in urban environments where there are all these problems to solve because the more problems you learn to solve, then potentially the more access to resources you have. Has humanity accidentally created the perfect puzzle playground for raccoons by building cities? That is what we're going to discuss. I want to know more about raccoons.
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Chapter 4: What adaptations help raccoons thrive in urban environments?
Do you think that their intelligence has evolved over generations sharing urban space with us, like going into ancient trash bins and eating ancient candy wrappers or whatever they ate like in cities 10, 50,000 years ago, that kind of thing? 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 human 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. Let's talk about adorability, because that's a trait that I think makes it easier to share urban space with them.
I, at the commercial break, described raccoons to you as the most adorable specimen of vermin. You took umbrage with the word vermin. I think we resolved on nuisance. Why are they the cutest nuisances that we can think of in our cities? For example, I don't know how you feel about cockroaches, but these are not cute nuisances.
Raccoons are with their little eyes and their cute little non-thumbs and stuff. 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. And actually, as a different part of my dissertation research, I did surveys of humans to see how people in Vancouver feel about raccoons. And one of the top feelings that people have is that they are adorable or cuteness. And so I think that helps with our just our tolerance of them.
And then that feeds back into that behavior of them being less afraid of humans and then potentially feeds back into some of those nuisance behaviors as well. All right. I got rapid fire raccoon questions for you, Hannah. Are you ready for them? I'm ready. All right. What are some raccoon talents that most people don't know about?
Oh, probably my favorite one is that they can climb down a tree facing forward. So they're one of the few animals of their size that can actually climb downwards headfirst. Cool. I don't know why that's important, but it sounds important and I like it. And I'm sure as a raccoon scientist, it must be.
Do they mate for life or are they just hanging along, mating with whoever comes along, like the swingers club, the key party kind of thing? Yeah, they don't mate for life. So we don't know a ton about their reproduction and their mate choice and things like that. But what we do know is that they do potentially have a raccoon friend. So we're still sort of studying their social environment.
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