City life is causing animals to evolve

[Catherine]

Quote:And yes it can happen very fast. It is quite exciting.

Yes, it is exciting to watch. Raccoons are clever enough in the country. City raccoons are a whole different level of clever. They climb through open windows, open people's cupboards and frigs, take the lids off containers and have a feast. They haven't figured out how to open cans, but they probably will learn to use electric can openers. There will be no stopping them after that.

Our city food waste program has green bins that we put our food waste in and they are picked up for composting. Raccoons can open the lids of those bins no problem. We have had to develop special raccoon proof green bins. They are just being delivered to some areas right now. I don't have one yet. How long will it be before the raccoons figure out how to open them.

So will the raccoons in the city figure the new bins out before I even get mine?

I have seen videos of pigeons and even raccoons riding on the subway trains. They clearly know where they are going. When the train pulls into their station they get off confidently.

This is a pretty fast adaption to new technology. There are people who have trouble with the transit system and there are many people who can't figure out which bin to put what garbage in. The raccoons know which one to open.