Scientists say urban raccoons’ shorter snouts and calmer reactions to people mirror traits found in domesticated animals across species

Raccoons living wild in cities in the United States are beginning to show physical changes that resemble early signs of domestication, according to a recent study.

The study found that urban raccoons had developed shorter snouts than rural raccoons, with the research produced by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and published in Frontiers in Zoology. This is an example of a physical trait that appears across domesticated animals that have adapted to living in close proximity to humans over long periods of time, along with other traits such as smaller teeth, curlier tails, smaller brains and floppier ears.