To answer the 43 (literally) questions in my inbox asking me if raccoons are becoming domesticated:
No. Raccoons are not becoming domesticated. They based that study off of the concept of “domestication syndrome,” which is a faulty study that proves nothing about domestication. This free peer reviewed article is a good summery about why.
The people who conducted the study were mostly undergrads and nobody who participated in it at all had any actual experience with raccoons, as far as I’m aware.
Nothing the study found had anything to do with domestication. All they found was that raccoons in urban areas have flatter faces. Which is still important and shows how raccoons are evolving to thrive in anthropogenic landscapes. But their faces are flatter so they can eat trash easier.















