Raccoons are showing early signs of domestication, new study finds

WBUR | By Here & Now Newsroom

Published December 1, 2025 at 12:03 PM EST

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A raccoon is seen at the Simon Bolivar National Zoological Park and Botanical Garden in San Jose, Costa Rica, on April 22, 2024. (Photo by Ezequiel Becerra/AFP via Getty Images)

A new study finds raccoons in urban areas are showing early signs of domestication. What does that mean? And how soon can we have raccoons in our homes and curled up by our feet?

Here & Now‘s Peter O’Dowd puts those questions to the study’s co-author, Raffaela Lesch, at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.