These tiny endangered raccoons make their own toys out of trash

LISTEN | Interview with biologist Nessie O’Neil:

As It Happens6:22Endangered Mexican pygmy raccoons make their own toys out of trash

The first time Nessie O’Neil witnessed a pygmy raccoon making a toy ball out of trash, she didn’t realize that she’d just made a major scientific discovery.

“My first thought was, oh my gosh, this is adorable,” O’Neil, a biologist at Miami University in Ohio, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

Then she showed the footage to her advisor.

“She was like, ‘Nessie, this is very important. Do not post this on social media because we need to write a paper about this.'”

That paper, now published in the journal Wild, documents the itty bitty Mexican critters rummaging through bins for paper and other materials, crafting those scraps into balls to play with, and teaching their family members how to do the same.

The authors say this is first documented evidence of “material culture” — socially shared cultural information about objects — in the Procyonidae family, which includes raccoons, ringtails and other similar creatures.

“We know that raccoons are very playful animals. If you give them a cat toy, they will bat it around or chew on it and chase it,” O’Neil said. “But up until now, we have not seen anything like this.”

Pygmy raccoons are a critically endangered species found only on Cozumel Island off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

Weighing about three to four kilograms, they are much smaller than the chunky mainland raccoons who dwell in Canadian and American cities. They have long limbs, which they use to navigate their native mangrove forests and forage for crabs and other shoreline prey.

But as their natural habitat is increasingly razed for development, O’Neil says they’ve turned to tourist scraps and to garbage bins for sustenance.

In fact, O’Neil was observing a family of raccoons at a beach club when she first witnessed the toy-making behaviour.

“I actually saw one of the juveniles go into a trash can and dig through and pull out a rather long receipt. And she brought the receipt back to a stainless steel water bowl that one of the staff members had put out for her and began to dunk it in the water,” she said.

“She started to roll it between her hands and shape it into a ball. And then she would roll it in the sand and maybe dump it back in the water a little bit and then go back to the sand and work on shaping it. And after she got it how she wanted it, she began to play with it like a cat with a little mouse toy.”

WATCH | Pygmy raccoon crafts her own toy:

Watch this pygmy racoon make a toy ball out of trash

Pygmy raccoons in Mexico have been documented fishing scraps of paper out of trash bins, then using water and sand to form them into little balls to play with. Credit: Nessie O’Neil/Miami University.

Then, O’Neil says, she shared her skills.

“Her sister learned how to do this behaviour, too. She would watch and practise alongside her,” O’Neil said.

The mother raccoon also tried to make a ball, the study noted, but gave up when was unable to retrieve her paper towel from the water dish.

“The success of the mother during this attempt might have been influenced by her earlier consumption of one ounce of a margarita, which appeared to lower her dexterity,” the study reads.

Novel behaviour

Benjamin Beck, a retired scientist from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and co-author of the book Animal Tool Behavior, says he’s seen many instances of animals playing using random objects as toys.

But he says he’s never heard of an animal making its own toy.

“I think it’s a distinct category to say that you made your play toy as well as used your play toy,” he said. “What that distinction means, I’m not absolutely sure. Maybe it suggests a higher level of foresight and creativity.”

What’s even more interesting, he says, is that the raccoons were seen batting the ball back and forth between each other.

“That’s social object play,” he said. “And that I have no record of.”

A slender racoon sits on some rocks next to a steel water bowl holding something red in its sand-covered front paw. — The researchers observed at least six instances of the raccoons playing with the balls they’d made. (Submitted by Nessie O’Neil)

Still, he says, he’d be hesitant to label the behaviour as an example of culture, given the small sample size.

“You’re going to have to look at a sequence of generations to make sure that the behaviour persists, it is being learned intergenerationally, before you can make the leap to any sort of culture,” he said

The plight of the pygmy

There are only 200 pygmy raccoons alive today in Cozumel, and O’Neil says those numbers are shrinking as tourist developments destroy their habitat and cut them off from their natural food supply.

In fact, the pygmy raccoon O’Neil first filmed making a paper ball has since died.

“She was so malnourished due to eating almost nothing but tortilla chips,” she said.

A small racoons pops its head and front paws out of a green trash bin while holding a piece of tortilla in its mouth — A pigmy racoon grabs some tortilla from a trash bin on a Mexican beach club. Researcher Nessie O’Neil says the creatures have become reliant on human scraps, and it’s leading to malnourishment. (Submitted by Nessie O’Neil)

O’Neil says she hopes this research will shed light on the plight of pygmy raccoons, and inspire people to change their behaviour — especially tourists.

“People need to stop feeding them. Stop feeding them tortilla chips. Stop offering them margaritas. Stop supporting resorts and beach clubs that are destroying their homes,” O’Neil said.

“Every animal has an intrinsic value. Even if humans can’t see it, they have a right to be there. This is their home.”