# How smart are raccoons? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 6, 2008, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993 "2008-08-06T02:59:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993/41 "2008-08-08T01:06:31Z")
I have an amusing story to contribute. When I was a kid, the mn up the street was a bow hunter. One day in the woods, he came upon two abandoned raccoon babies (the mother had died). He took them home to his children. The two raccons were amusing pets, and were quite playful. One day, the family left them home-the raccons climbed into the china cabinet, and opened the doors-they then tossed all the plates onto the floor (all of the china was smashed). The next day, the raccoons were gone! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993/42 "2008-08-08T01:24:13Z")
I tried securing my garbage bin with cords. The little bastards can untie knots, as it turns out. I’d start using locks but I’m afraid I’ll look out there one night and see a raccoon with a set of burglar’s tools. One reason you might be seeing so many hit by cars, though, is simply that there’s a zillion of them. The raccoon population in North America has exploded in size and range in the last fifty to 100 years owing largely to the huge benefits they derive from humans; elimination of predators, access to human-built nesting sites, and enormous, easy-access food supplies. More or less any wooded area you see will support raccoons, and they fill our towns and cities. I’ve lived the last eight years in and around Toronto, a metropolis of considerable size, and the raccoons here are just not to be believed. They’re everywhere, in astounding numbers, and remarkably fearless; a few weeks ago I had to actually kick one in the ass to get him out of my back yard at the speed I wanted. I’d guess they outnumber humans here. There are few places you can go on the continent with trees where there won’t be raccoons in uncountable abundance. The ones you see hit by cars are a tiny fraction of a fraction of the total raccoon population. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_fight_the_hypothetical)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993/43 "2008-08-08T02:33:58Z")
I raised one as a pet, had it for a few years. In my opinion they are very smart. He displayed a remarkable talent for problem solving. For example, he once moved a waste can to stand on to reach an unreachable shelf. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993/44 "2008-08-08T13:56:29Z")
[QUOTE=Sam Stone] Were her papers not subject to peer review? I would think a scientist in a university program would know how to conduct experiments, wouldn’t she? Have you seen videos of Alex at work? [/QUOTE] Not my area of expertise. I do know, however, that birds lack a neocortex, making some of Pepperberg’s claims highly unlikely. I have read challenges to her work by people whose opinions I respect. If I have time later today I will try to dig up some of her critic’s pages. For now: [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9404E6D61131F93AA35753C1A96F958260](http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9404E6D61131F93AA35753C1A96F958260) ---
**Author:** ![brennele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@brennele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brennele)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993/45 "2020-03-29T03:30:43Z")
Birds do not have a neocortex but, it turns out, that many birds, particularly the corvids (crows, bluejays, ravens), have an analogous structure which developed via parallel evolution. > **[Crow Brains Reveal Secrets of Their Intelligence](https://www.iflscience.com/crow-brains-reveal-secrets-their-intelligence-23733)** > > Crow Brains Reveal Secrets of Their Intelligence ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993/46 "2020-03-29T07:33:19Z")
We have a big pond with a dock. I see the tell-tale tiny handprints allover it. The coons like to get on the brackets underneath and eat whatever they find floating or crawling. I couldn’t figure out how they were getting underneath w/o swimming. (They can swim, I’ve seen it) What they were doing is walking to the end of the dock and flipping over the edge and grabbing the upright cypress posts and getting underneath to a bracket type thingy. Then having their surf and turf luncheon. Brilliant critters. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993/47 "2020-03-29T18:03:06Z")
> [@vetbridge](#): > > Fifteen (now sixteen) responses, yet not a single post by a raccoon. Their intelligence is over estimated. In the internet nobody knows you’re a raccoon. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993/48 "2020-03-29T18:39:35Z")
[Russian raccoon on youtube with a sense of humor.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0_0Atfuo8w) ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993/49 "2020-03-29T18:47:26Z")
Raccoons are apparently smarter than Toronto city councilors. Some years ago the city council commissioned and approved a “green bin” that would be distributed to every household in the city. It was an addition to the recycling program and was supposed to be used for household organics (waste food, etc.) that could be composted instead of wasting landfill space. Mindful of the city’s raccoon problem, the green bins were designed with clever latches that were supposed to make them raccoon-proof. It took the raccoons almost no time at all to figure out how to open them with their dexterous tiny little hands, and enjoy fine dining while creating smelly messes all over the city. The city was forced to redesign them and re-issue them all over again. I like to think that to get it right the second time, they brought raccoons in as consultants. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993/50 "2020-03-29T20:35:14Z")
> [@brujaja](#): > > I can tell you this: My friend Sandy was coming back from somewhere through Berkeley with a tall stack of **pies** on the back of his bike. He was accosted by a group of large adult male raccoons. They knocked his bike over, & mugged him for half of the pies. True story. > > At least they left him half. 🙂 It wasn’t half the pies they let him keep but his life, so he could tell others of his kind. ---
**Author:** ![Onthefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9de053/32.png) [@Onthefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onthefly)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2020, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993/51 "2020-03-30T00:57:13Z")
I was talking to a park ranger about the park’s garbage cans that required two hand simultaneously on different latches. He said that there was some overlap between the smartest raccoons and the dumbest tourists. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993/52 "2020-04-03T07:32:36Z")
Ah yes, the Toronto raccoon, the real ruler of the city: so much so, that a raccoon is the official spokesanimal for Porter Airline, which is based out of the Island airport (YTZ) on the Toronto waterfront. I was walking home one night when I saw a raccon climb up a chain-link fence, go over the top, and then, nose-down, go down the other side. One time, I was renting a basement room in Oakville outside Toronto. The basement had a separate outside entrance that led to an outside staircase set in the ground beside the house. At the top was a fence with a gate. One night, I came home from school (I was studying animation) and opened the gate to find four raccoons staring at me: two big ones and two little ones. An entire raccoon family! Startled and outnumbered, I closed the gate. When I opened it again, the raccoons were gone. ---
**Author:** ![Hi\_Medlo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Hi\_Medlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hi_Medlo)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993/53 "2020-04-03T13:12:23Z")
We used to have an automatic cat feeder on the back porch. The raccoons figured out how to unscrew the top and empty the hopper. I built a box around it, bolted to the porch with just the little feeding tray exposed. I used a hasp with a lock on the hinged lid so it was easy for us to refill the hopper. I used a keyed lock, because the damn things would have figured out the combination on a combination lock, lol 1 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993/54 "2020-04-03T13:29:52Z")
If you ever find yourself asking the question, is a raccoon smart enough to get this food? Then the answer is almost always going to be yes. Take food out of the equation, and it’s a crapshot. But they’re fiendishly clever when there’s a meal on the line. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993/55 "2020-04-03T14:56:08Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > They also can get cans stuck on their heads and wander around bumping into things for 20 minutes. So, maybe they’re not _too_ smart. I know this is a response to the older part of the thread. But I remember seeing video of a skunk getting it’s head caught in a peanut butter jar. A brave guy approached it and reached down to pull the jar off. Skunk just stomped off with not thanks!:p:D ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993/56 "2020-04-03T15:15:21Z")
The “thanks” was expressed in the negative - by not skunking him. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993/57 "2020-04-03T16:39:55Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Raccoons are apparently smarter than Toronto city councilors. . . . I like to think that to get it right the second time, they brought raccoons in as consultants. That’s really the only way to be sure. I wouldn’t trust an upgrade that hadn’t been field tested. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2020, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993/58 "2020-04-03T16:47:53Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > In the internet nobody knows you’re a raccoon. In this thread, nobody reads Post #20. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-smart-are-raccoons/458993.md?page=2)