City Raccoons Show Early Signs of Domestication in Their Snouts

Full domestication still looks unlikely, experts said. Female raccoons are fertile for as few as three days a year, and the animals are solitary by nature. Bonnie Beaver, a veterinarian and animal behaviorist at Texas A&M University, said raccoons “do not have limited agility”; they can get into nearly anything. She also pointed to a missing economic incentive: no one needs raccoons for food or clothing, and very few people need them as companions.

Zeder cautioned against thinking of domestication as a deterministic, one-way process. Melinda Zeder, a zooarcheologist and emeritus curator at the Smithsonian Institution, cited the Soviet silver fox experiment, which produced new coat colors within a dozen generations of selection for tameness, and noted that some species stop halfway. Raccoons, she said, may be at that point.

The pet route demonstrates the problem. Dave, a raccoon owner who asked for a pseudonym, bought a kit from an exotic-pet dealer. Keeping raccoons is legal in a dozen states; his state was not one of them. The raccoon, Blondie, learned tricks and used a litter box at first. When he hit puberty at about 1 year old, he ate through computer cords, shredded books, tore open drywall and destroyed the kitchen. Dave said the animal is “mad” all the time, and Dave is now the only person the raccoon tolerates.

Nessie O’Neil, a raccoon biologist, called the animals “incredibly destructive” and “wildly, wildly intelligent.” The animal’s intelligence is part of the problem. Captive raccoons need large enclosures and constant puzzle-style enrichment to stay occupied. MacDonald put the objection in blunter terms: “Why the hell would you take a crazy little wild animal that is exceedingly bitey.”

Health risks make the case harder. Raccoons carry rabies and leptospirosis. Their roundworm eggs can survive years of cleaning with bleach and detergents, and migrating larvae can reach a human eye before the infection is diagnosed.

The domestication study itself is a single paper built on photos from the public. O’Neil said the danger is in the interpretation: people hear “a scientific justification for having this animal as a pet” and do not dig further.

Marilyn Smith, a Long Island resident who asked for a pseudonym, did not choose this arrangement. She started feeding a stray cat colony, then left her garage and porch doors open for the cats. Raccoons learned the schedule, rejected the cookie flavors they disliked and began coming inside at night. They have ransacked her daughter’s old bedroom, sent her for two rounds of rabies shots and made it impossible for her to travel or sleep.

Scientists have a word for that relationship. It is not domestication.

Zeder described raccoons as potential “commensals,” species that benefit while humans get nothing, or “synanthropes,” species that rely on human settlements without ever being invited. Cockroaches and pigeons belong in the same category. Zeder said the animals may stay half-domesticated forever.

Asked about the chaos at her house, Smith said, “No one would believe this, but I’m really a dog lover.”