We see them in our foul trashcans, picking at our scraps and eating rotten foods. But are raccoons more intelligent than we think? I have seen a couple raccoons in my lifetime, but I have not known much about them beyond a few rumors of possible domestication. One study was done looking at a colony of raccoons and their processes of learning and association. Using E.L. Thorndike’s puzzle box methodology, raccoons solved this wooden crate puzzle more easily the second time around. This could be compared to humans teaching pets “tricks.” Meaning, it may not be that their brains are able to critically think, but just to get the job done to completion. It was independently concluded that they “bested the abilities” of cats and dogs. I found it interesting that raccoons are one of the species that flourished beside human expansion, while others receded.
It is said that, “Both popular and scientific naturalists had argued that cunning, mischief and curiosity characterized the species.” In addition, “The raccoon’s instinctual curiosity lay at the heart of Cole’s most startling claim: that the animal possessed ideas derived from complex forms of mental association, a quality that many scientists argued non-human animals did not possess.” Raccoons are being considered to be very good learners. There was an experiment done with twenty-two rats, two dogs, four raccoons, and five human children to measure intelligence. Apa.org shows us the method: “Hunter first trained the subject to associate a light source with the positive experience of being fed. Next, he detained the subject behind a gate, but permitted it to observe three light bulbs, one of which was briefly illuminated and then turned off. The task was to remember the position of the lighted bulb and to approach it and collect the food reward. Hunter defined success in terms of the subject’s repeated correct approach to the stimulus. He manipulated the duration of the delay before release to assess how long a subject could remember the location of the previously lighted bulb.”
Although not widely conducted at all, Cole’s observations found that while rats and dogs needed to maintain their “bodily orientation” toward the light bulb testing, the raccoon did not hesitate as much. The raccoon results were compared to the human children’s results because they could both “identity the correct stimulus even after being distracted.” The results here are not enough to make any sort of conclusion regarding raccoon’s intelligence. I think that this also a very old study from at least 1915. This does show how much more raccoon have developed, or how much more animal-like they have become. If raccoons were proven to be smarter, would we use them more in labs or domesticate them like our cats and dogs? I’m not sure I’m ready to snuggle up to a raccoon, no matter how smart they are…