{"id":298069,"date":"2025-11-18T00:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T00:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/298069\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T00:37:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T00:37:08","slug":"researchers-say-raccoons-may-be-inching-closer-to-becoming-pets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/298069\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers say raccoons may be inching closer to becoming pets"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you watched Guardians of the Galaxy<\/a> and wished you had a pet raccoon of your own, you might be in luck, as studies show the critters are showing early signs of domestication.<\/p>\n

Raccoons are feisty, intelligent animals native to North America. They\u2019re considered a wild species and aren\u2019t suited for being pets\u2026 but that hasn\u2019t stopped some folks from trying.<\/p>\n

In fact, it\u2019s not completely uncommon in rural America for some folks to have a \u2018pet\u2019 raccoon of sorts. A film was even made about a boy and his pet raccoon, Rascal, in 1969<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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While they\u2019re certainly adorable, friendly, and smart, it\u2019s not recommended to keep one as a pet<\/a> due to the possibility of injury, disease, and, of course, their penchant for getting into anything and everything not completely locked down.<\/p>\n

That being said, it looks like these critters could be domesticated sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

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\"AUnsplash.com: Chalo GarciaA new study shows that raccoons are physically changing in response to their environment.<\/p>\n

Scientists find raccoons are developing traits linked to domestication<\/p>\n

A new study<\/a> from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock\u2019s Department of Biology found that raccoons are physically changing in response to their continued interactions with humans.<\/p>\n

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To start, we should explain that \u2018tame\u2019 animals tend to have specific physical traits, specifically shorter faces, floppy ears, smaller heads, and white patches on their fur. This is called \u2018domestication syndrome,\u2019 and the traits that arise from it are theorized to help animals survive in places with an increased human presence.<\/p>\n

After looking through close to 20,000 photos of raccoons across the United States, researchers at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock found that raccoons living in urban areas, on average, had snouts that were 3.5 inches shorter than those living in the wilderness.<\/p>\n

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They aren\u2019t the only animals exhibiting such traits, either; foxes and mice that live in urban areas also have shorter snouts.<\/p>\n

\"AUnsplash.com: Gabriel TovarAs raccoons continue to live alongside humans, their physiology is changing to increase their chances of survival in urban areas.<\/p>\n

According to biologist Adam Wilkins<\/a>, this could indicate that \u201conce wild animals start spending time in the proximity of people, they become a little bit less afraid and perhaps even start showing physical signs of domestication syndrome.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In fact, foxes have already been undergoing domestication for decades. A research facility in Russia<\/a> has been breeding foxes with the aim of domesticating them since the 1960s, and even sells them to help fund its research.<\/p>\n

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Be warned, though; these animals don\u2019t make great pets<\/a>, and are even illegal in some areas. While they certainly look cute, both foxes and raccoons can be quite destructive (not to mention smelly) and need lots of space and enrichment in their environments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you watched Guardians of the Galaxy and wished you had a pet raccoon of your own, you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-298069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}