{"id":361936,"date":"2026-03-28T00:49:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T00:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/361936\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T00:49:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T00:49:20","slug":"the-raccoon-raiding-your-garbage-bin-might-just-be-solving-a-puzzle-for-the-fun-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/361936\/","title":{"rendered":"The raccoon raiding your garbage bin might just be solving a puzzle \u2014 for the fun of it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever woken up to find that a crafty raccoon has overturned your garbage bin and spread the discarded contents of your life across the street?<\/p>\n

Raccoons \u2014 sometimes referred to as \u201ctrash pandas\u201d \u2014 are renowned as excellent innovators<\/a> and problem-solvers<\/a> who can often find their way through the trickiest barriers in their search for food. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

A raccoon working on opening a multi-solution puzzle box.
\n (Hannah Griebling)<\/p>\n

So how do raccoons adapt their problem-solving strategies as tasks become more difficult? And will they still engage in problem solving even if it doesn\u2019t lead to a food reward? We designed a research experiment to find out. <\/p>\n

We were startled to discover that raccoons were intrinsically motivated to solve multiple puzzles within a 20-minute trial<\/a>, even when finding a solution did not directly lead to an irresistible marshmallow.<\/p>\n

Innovative brains, like primates<\/p>\n

Raccoons often engage in problem-solving when foraging in human-dominated areas, and have several adaptations that allow them to do this. <\/p>\n

First, they have a high number of neurons<\/a> packed into a relatively small brain. Their neuronal density is more similar to that of primates than other carnivores. <\/p>\n

They also have highly dexterous forepaws<\/a> adapted for foraging in streams, and a generalist diet that allows them to eat nearly everything we throw away. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Raccoons frequently use human household equipment and technology for their own purposes.
\n (Unsplash\/Fr0ggy5)<\/p>\n

As researchers, we were curious to discover whether raccoons change their strategies as problems become more difficult. For example, what does a raccoon do if the garbage bin is open, versus if it has a lid or if that lid is locked? <\/p>\n

We were also curious whether their problem-solving follows what we call an exploration-exploitation trade-off<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An irresistable marshmallow reward<\/p>\n

To explore these questions, we gave raccoons a multi-access puzzle box. These boxes are used in animal cognition research to study problem solving and innovation. They have multiple problems to solve<\/a> so the animal can access a single food reward. <\/p>\n

Typically, researchers give the animal a multi-access box and let the animal solve a puzzle of their choosing to access the reward. Then, the researcher locks that solution and the animal must innovate a new way into the box. <\/p>\n

Instead of locking the solutions on the box we asked a simple question: What would happen if we left the box unlocked and let the raccoons freely interact with it? Would they keep going back to the same solution type that they already knew how to use, or would they explore and open new solution types? <\/p>\n

Would they open the box once, get their food reward \u2014 a single marshmallow \u2014 and be done? Or would they keep playing with the box even after the food
\nreward was gone?<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A raccoon has successfully opened a turn knob solution on the multi-solution puzzle box and is working on removing an unlocked lock from the hasp latch.
\n (Hannah Griebling)<\/p>\n

Raccoons solve problems for fun<\/p>\n

What the raccoons did was surprising. We expected them to find multiple solutions on the box. We did not expect them to continue looking for solutions after they found the single marshmallow inside the puzzle box. <\/p>\n

They seemed to be intrinsically motivated to open multiple solutions within a 20-minute trial, even when solving the puzzle didn\u2019t directly lead to a marshmallow reward. <\/p>\n

In fact, the raccoons were discovering multiple solutions on the puzzle box even when the problems got more difficult to solve, and they could see and feel with their forepaws that there wasn\u2019t another marshmallow in the box. <\/p>\n

When the going gets tougher<\/p>\n

As those problems became more difficult, the raccoons began to quickly hone in on a single solution to keep returning to. <\/p>\n

This follows an exploration-exploitation trade off<\/a>, where it\u2019s more beneficial to exploit a single solution when the problems are more difficult, since solving them takes more time and effort from the raccoon. <\/p>\n

\"Racoon<\/a><\/p>\n

A raccoon works on a medium difficulty solution.
\n (Hannah Griebling)<\/p>\n

Imagine standing on a city street, feeling hungry. You see your favourite restaurant, where you love the food, and you see an interesting new one next door. Where do you choose to eat? <\/p>\n

Humans and non-human animals are faced with these decisions all the time: when to \u201cexplore\u201d and try a new thing, and when to \u201cexploit\u201d our own knowledge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If that new restaurant down the street is expensive, you might be less inclined to try it over your favourite dish served at your usual place.<\/p>\n

Success in ever-changing cities<\/p>\n

This propensity to innovate and problem-solve, even when it doesn\u2019t directly lead to an extrinsic reward like food, might be familiar to most of us. It\u2019s what drives our desire to solve a crossword puzzle or conquer a new video game. <\/p>\n

This intrinsic motivation could help raccoons succeed in urban environments. In cities, resources are often changing rapidly \u2014 one night a raccoon might get into someone\u2019s garbage, and the next night there\u2019s a brick on top of the garbage bin to try and keep the raccoon out. <\/p>\n

The more problems raccoons learn to solve, the more they might be able to access resources in ever-changing cities. Of course, that might annoy some of us, but we can admire raccoons\u2019 ability to thrive alongside us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ever woken up to find that a crafty raccoon has overturned your garbage bin and spread the discarded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[85,46,141,386],"class_list":["post-361936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}