Toronto's new tech at risk of starving raccoon population

Tuesday, September 26, 2017, 2:03 PM - Toronto has a decided love-hate relationship with its raccoon population.

When one of the little bandits meets its maker, the city bands together to memorialise the passing of the noble 'trash panda'. But homeowners scooping up a pile of up-ended garbage every trash day may - justifiably - feel less friendly toward the neighbourhood pest.

The redesigned green bin, which started rolling out to Toronto residences last year and should be full distributed by the end of 2017, was supposed to be raccoon-proof, leading some to wonder what happens when you take away what seems to be a main food source for the urban raccoon?

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"I view scavenging by raccoons as part of the urban food chain - an elegant form of trophic sequencing," wrote wildlife campaigner Rachel Plotkin in a piece for The Toronto Star. "Just as hyenas ... clean up after a lion-kill, raccoons root through our compost bins, completing the corncob that wasn't nibbled to the core or the stew tossed after sitting in the fridge six days. There is efficiency in this process."

Below: A raccoon with moves that would make Spider-Man jealous

The City of Toronto's fact sheet for the new and improved bins touted them as having "much improved animal resistant features; able to be stored outside or set out in the evening with a locked lid", citing requests from users as a driving factor in the redesign.

The redesign features a latch, which can be turned either left or right to unlock, and is intended to re-lock automatically after the bin is emptied. The city's fact sheet does note that the latch may be stiff at first, but will "loosen up with use."

And that may be good news for the fuzzy problem-solvers it was supposed to keep out.

Shortly after publishing a story celebrating the success of the bins this past spring, The Toronto Star produced a second article, listing reports from Toronto residents who's bins had already been breached by the crafty procyonidae.

But they seemed to stymie at least a few of the critters' attempted robberies, as in the video at the top of the article. Does that mean the trash panda's days are numbered in The 6ix?

Probably not, at least according to York Univeristy researcher Suzanne MacDonald, who studies a variety of animals, including Toronto's famous raccoons.

Speaking to The Globe and Mail earlier this year, MacDonald said the green bins aren't the animals' only source of food. "The raccoons' territories are very small, three square blocks. So they are only getting those green bins once a week. They are not going to die en masse or anything. It's just that hopefully, they'll get thinner. And if they get thinner, they will have fewer babies."

Watch: Toronto raccoon makes 700-foot climb to say 'hello'

Plotkin checked in with MacDonald a few weeks ago to see how the raccoon population was faring, now that the bins had been deployed in parts of the city for close to a year. In her Toronto Star piece, she revealed that MacDonald's multi-year study of the raccoon population's BMI versus the new green bins shows the little bandits are doing as well as ever.

"They are clever enough to stay plump from other food sources, such as bird feeders, insects, dumpsters, and garbage bins," Plotkin writes.

In fact, despite their trash-rifling reputation in the city, raccoons are among the most omnivorous animals on Earth, with a diet including worms, insects, fruits, nuts, bird eggs, fish, and - in some cases - other small animals.

So rest easy, Raccoon Nation fans. Toronto's title as "Raccoon Capital of the World" shouldn't be in danger any time soon.

Sources: Toronto Star | Globe and Mail | City of Toronto | Raccoons: A Natural History |