Narrator: In 2016, Toronto spent $31 million
to fend off a raccoon invasion.
The masked critters were everywhere,
pooping on porches, stopping traffic,
and infesting attics, and they're not
just taking over Toronto.
Reports of raccoon vandalism have plagued cities
like Portland, Chicago, and New York City,
and as raccoon-ridden cities know,
we can't seem to stop them.
Between the 1930s and 1980s, the US raccoon population
increased twentyfold, and it's still going strong.
From 2014 to 2015, raccoon complaints
in Brooklyn nearly doubled,
so how are these masked bandits making it in big cities?
Well, for starters, they can digest just about anything
from fish and acorns in the forest
to dog food and pizza on the street,
and just like humans, raccoons usually prefer the pizza,
which is why they flock from woodland
to city in the first place.
In Brooklyn, for example, captured raccoons sometimes
get relocated to Prospect Park and nearby forests,
but wildlife biologists report they often head right back
to the dumpster-packed city streets.
It's just about impossible to stop them,
as Toronto discovered after it spend millions
on raccoon-proof waste bins.
Unlike traditional bins, the lids had special gravity locks,
which open when a garbage truck arm
turns the bin upside down.
The idea was that if you cut off their major food source,
they would skip town, but that didn't happen.
In fact, one year later, a wildlife-control business
reported that raccoon-related work had doubled.
Finally, a clever raccoon was caught on camera
jailbreaking the new bin.
How did she outwit an entire city?
Well, study after study has revealed that raccoons
are considerably smarter than your average medium-sized
critter. Turns out raccoon brains have more neurons packed
into their brains than other animals of the same size.
In fact, they have the same neuron density as primates,
who are notoriously smart, and their clever brains help
explain why raccoons can open complex locks,
solve puzzles with ease, and even come up with solutions
to problems that scientists didn't think of.
Add to that their ultrasensitive hands,
er, paws, which have four times as many sensory receptors
as their feet. This helps them to feel subtle textures
like special trashcan lids in Toronto
and even open locks without looking.
And unfortunately for us,
driving them away is a fool's errand.
Studies show that after mass removal,
populations tend to rebound
to their previous levels in a year.
After all, females can start giving birth
at just 1 year old and can have as many as eight kits
in a single year.
This quick breeding is also why experts say mass cullings
aren't a long-term solution.
And while they're awfully cute,
the damage they can cause is not.
When raccoons nest in buildings,
they can destroy insulation,
chew up wires, and tear holes through walls,
and it can cost you hundreds or even thousands
of dollars to repair that kind of damage.
One raccoon was even caught
destroying over $3,000 worth of artwork,
and just removing them can cost $300 to $500 a pop.
Plus, the poop they leave behind can contain roundworms
and other parasites, which can enter your lungs
when you breathe or get tracked into your home by your pets.
Even worse, raccoons can transmit diseases
like canine distemper and, in rare cases, rabies.
So it's understandable that cities are trying
to find some way, any way, to manage them.
Can't do a thing about it, just chase them off.
They come back.
Narrator: If nothing else, it's a lesson learned.
We may have built the cities,
but we don't necessarily rule them.