ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIESDec 1

The trash panda is being domesticated

What?

Urban #raccoons have shorter snout length than rural raccoons

This is due to #neoteny: the retention of juvenile characteristics in adulthood

An aggressive adult #raccoon won't live long near us. So their genes aren't passed on. But the more docile and childlike breed more successfully in cities

Dogs are basically wolf puppies after all

Give it a millennia or two and we'll have raccoons on our sofas

https://phys.org/news/2025-12-city-raccoons-domestication.html

#Evolution #Science

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.

Show threadAlex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK
@benroyce the urban fox of England is surprisingly tame these days, where I live it often coexists with cats in the same street (as outright fighting would get it shooed away, and cats stand their ground), and it has gained a lot more road sense and even learned to use pedestrian crossings (both the pedestrian refuge, and even the traditional zebra crossing you might associate with images of Britain (which is generally located in a well lit and fairly busy location)
Dec 1 at 9:08pmWeb