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Raccoons are showing early signs of domestication

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Raccoons are showing early signs of domestication

#111

Post by shawn_w »

riffraff wrote: post #88
caymanjim wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're pretty great pets. We had one for a while when I was a kid. Its mom got run over and we nursed it and raised it for a few months. Instinctively used the same litter box as the cats. Hung out on the couch sitting on my shoulder watching TV. Friendly and playful. Would follow people around and play with toys. The biggest challenge is that they basically have hands. He would climb up the kitchen cabinets, grab a…

There's a Japanese anime from the '70s called something like "rascal the racoon", based on an American book, which tells the story of a kid with a pet raccoon. I've wanted a pet raccoon since I saw this on TV in the '80s, and raccoons aren't even a thing in Europe :(

Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era. I had that book as a kid. There was a live action Disney film of it; didn't know about the anime version. Neat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rascal_(book)

Re: Raccoons are showing early signs of domestication

#112

Post by shawn_w »

tzs wrote: post #87
nunez wrote: post #59

People have been trying to make the house raccoon a thing: https://old.reddit.com/r/raccoons From what I remember spending time on this topic, raccoons need super challenging locks as toys and TONS of engagement from their keepers because they get bored easily and bored raccoons == ultra destructive raccoons. Also, rabies.

Assuming you are starting with a wild raccoon, get one from a population that is not in the eastern parts of the US or Canada and rabies is unlikely. Here in Washington state for example there have been no documented cases of rabies in any wild raccoon in at least 60 years. Same goes for all other wild terrestrial mammals here.

Bats, on the other hand...

Re: Raccoons are showing early signs of domestication

#113

Post by gyomu »

riffraff wrote: post #88
caymanjim wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're pretty great pets. We had one for a while when I was a kid. Its mom got run over and we nursed it and raised it for a few months. Instinctively used the same litter box as the cats. Hung out on the couch sitting on my shoulder watching TV. Friendly and playful. Would follow people around and play with toys. The biggest challenge is that they basically have hands. He would climb up the kitchen cabinets, grab a…

There's a Japanese anime from the '70s called something like "rascal the racoon", based on an American book, which tells the story of a kid with a pet raccoon. I've wanted a pet raccoon since I saw this on TV in the '80s, and raccoons aren't even a thing in Europe :(

And the anime was so popular it led to raccoons being imported en masse to Japan and becoming an invasive species when their owners released them

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rascal_the_Raccoon#Impact

Re: Raccoons are showing early signs of domestication

#114

Post by superultra »

foo-bar-bat wrote: post #12

Raccoons have been living literally inside of houses for centuries. One was kept as a pet in Jamestown Virginia in the 1600s. Another lived in the White House in the 1900s. Surely, not a decade has passed between have there been NO domesticated raccoons in the US? If living near humans changes animals, that started at least 25,000 years ago here in North America. Not recently. My neighbors had a pet raccoon growing u…

I think you’re mistaking slight natural adaption for domestication, and taking domestication for granted. Go into nature and try and train a wild wolf. Good luck! You can’t.

Domestication, in the way that we see having happened with dogs (and cattle, and chickens) takes a really long time.

We consider cats “domesticated” and yet demonstrably they are not. If they were much bigger, they’d eat us, and if set into wild, nearly all household cats immediately revert to feral.

I owned five ferrets once. Loved them so much, but came to the realization that there are animals that should be pets and animals that maybe shouldn’t (yet). I think we have many, many more generations before raccoons are at the same level as dogs.

Re: Raccoons are showing early signs of domestication

#115

Post by raverbashing »

I_am_uncreative wrote: post #100
tzs wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming you are starting with a wild raccoon, get one from a population that is not in the eastern parts of the US or Canada and rabies is unlikely. Here in Washington state for example there have been no documented cases of rabies in any wild raccoon in at least 60 years. Same goes for all other wild terrestrial mammals here.

Plus, there are vaccines to prevent it.

Yes, but the rabies vaccine is not really for "prevention" (with some exceptions, before someone comes "ackschually" here), more like post-exposure

Because it sucks less than dying of Rabies and boy you don't want to know how low the bar is here

Re: Raccoons are showing early signs of domestication

#116

Post by MagicMoonlight »

nunez wrote: post #59

People have been trying to make the house raccoon a thing: https://old.reddit.com/r/raccoons From what I remember spending time on this topic, raccoons need super challenging locks as toys and TONS of engagement from their keepers because they get bored easily and bored raccoons == ultra destructive raccoons. Also, rabies.

People can also get rabies, that doesn’t mean we ban babies or perform mass cullings.

If they were domesticated, you’d just get them vaccinated at the vet.

Re: Raccoons are showing early signs of domestication

#118

Post by 4ggr0 »

mrsvanwinkle wrote: post #82
caymanjim wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're pretty great pets. We had one for a while when I was a kid. Its mom got run over and we nursed it and raised it for a few months. Instinctively used the same litter box as the cats. Hung out on the couch sitting on my shoulder watching TV. Friendly and playful. Would follow people around and play with toys. The biggest challenge is that they basically have hands. He would climb up the kitchen cabinets, grab a…

best HN story ive read in a while. i want a raccoon that eating tinyfist-fuls of cereal steaight from the box it opened, watching TV

sounds very similar to a stoner-roommate to be honest. a bit chaotic, but peaceful. hungry, and bored.

Re: Raccoons are showing early signs of domestication

#119

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

foo-bar-bat wrote: post #12

Raccoons have been living literally inside of houses for centuries. One was kept as a pet in Jamestown Virginia in the 1600s. Another lived in the White House in the 1900s. Surely, not a decade has passed between have there been NO domesticated raccoons in the US? If living near humans changes animals, that started at least 25,000 years ago here in North America. Not recently. My neighbors had a pet raccoon growing u…

> Surely, not a decade has passed between have there been NO domesticated raccoons in the US?

An animal of wild parentage that was raised by humans is tame but not domesticated. So no, there's aren't really domesticated racoons, only tame ones.

Domestication is a process that takes many generations. It is a selective breeding process more than anything else. Animals that are 1 generation away from wild ancestors aren't domesticated, by definition.

And the last category is feral animals, "that live in the wild but are descended from domesticated individuals.".

Re: Raccoons are showing early signs of domestication

#120

Post by taneq »

aydyn wrote: post #85
shawn_w wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cats get vaccinated against rabies. I doubt there's one for racoons.

Uh, the rabies vaccine is the same regardless of species.

Huh, I'd never thought about it like that but yeah, the vaccine should depend on the targeted illness, not the recipient.
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