Raccoons and the Fast Food Diet
The fast food discarded in cities becomes food for wildlife animals like raccoons. As a result city raccoons consume more fats and sweets than their rural counterparts. The result is that raccoons have more body fat than rural raccoons and they are also exhibiting signs of hyperglycemia. This is an expected result considering that the same diet among adults is leading to high levels of body mass as well as diabetes and obesity. Scientists in Sudbury’s Laurentian University have discovered that the sources of raccoons’ meals have a direct correlation with the size and health of the animal. The study that yielded these results focused on three groups of raccoons. The groups frequented three different areas and as such consumed a different diet. One group of raccoons residing in a primarily farming area had a diet that closely reflected the diet of true wildlife raccoons as they had limited access to human waste. Another group living at the Toronto zoo consumed fast food leftovers. A third group lived in a conservation area and had moderate access to human food. According to evolutionary ecology professor and lead author of the study, Albrecht Schulte-Hostedde, the results showed that the raccoons that lived in the city had the highest levels of body fat and blood sugar levels and those who lived in the farm area and as such had the least access to human food had the most normal levels of body fat and blood sugar levels. The researchers have been quick to explain that they have not yet associated these conditions with any illnesses among raccoons. Wildlife experts are predicting that the city raccoons could soon face reproductive and survival challenges and they continue to monitor the raccoons to determine this.