Science News Story

A research team at Laurentian University has found that raccoons with increased access to human food waste gain more weight and have higher blood sugar levels compared to those with limited access to our leftovers.

 

This increase in blood sugar levels, a condition called hyperglycemia, is problematic for these animals.

 

“We’re concerned to see hyperglycemia in these raccoons, because it might lower their survival rate, and their ability to reproduce,” said Dr. Albrecht Schulte-Hostedde, the project’s lead researcher. “This might also affect their immune systems, and can lead to other long-lasting, problematic conditions.”

 

This spells trouble for everybody’s favourite trash pandas.

 

For this study, raccoons found on site at the Toronto Zoo were considered to have the most access to human food waste, while a farming area in a watershed was considered a low waste access location. A conservation area was also studied as an in-between measure.

 

The raccoons weighed at the Toronto Zoo were much heavier than those from the conservation area and the farming site. These heavier raccoons also had significantly higher blood sugar levels compared to the others.

 

Something the researchers didn’t expect to see was a lack of change in the levels of a hormone called leptin. Leptin, in many animals, can indicate how much fat that individual has. In line with other studies, the researchers expected the raccoons at the zoo to have higher leptin levels, but this was not the case. “This doesn’t make our other findings irrelevant, though, as leptin is not an accurate indicator of fat in all animals, and this could be the case here. We need to look into this more,” explained Schulte-Hostedde.

 

Despite the unchanged leptin levels, the weights and blood sugar levels of the raccoons still raise concern. These numbers show that the food we throw away in raccoon-populated, urban areas, affects the health and survivability of these raccoons.

 

With our cities growing, and raccoons gaining more access to our less-than-healthy food waste, we are forcing them into unhealthy eating habits. We are, in a sense, setting these animals up for failure.

 

“This is something we should be concerned about, because our poor food choices might be unintentionally harming raccoons, which may snowball and have immense repercussions for entire food chains,” emphasized Schulte-Hostedde.

 

If we can’t be convinced to stay away from our favourite unhealthy foods for our own sakes, we should at least try for the sake of these animals who have to scrape by on our scraps.