Life At Night, Speakers Series 2023
Working the night shift: Urban racoons in Canada
They work at night, traveling unseen through the city like masked bandits, one of the true success stories of species adapting to human disturbance. How do raccoons (Procyon lotor) survive so well in the urban jungle? And are humans unwittingly creating an ‘Uber raccoon’? In this talk I will explore what we know about raccoons, how they live alongside us, and how they may eventually take over the world…if we let them!
About our speaker: Dr. Suzanne E. MacDonald is currently a University Professor in the Department of Psychology at York University, appointed to the graduate programs in both Psychology and Biology. She has three main areas of research expertise, including memory and cognition (“how animals think”), the psychological well-being of captive animals, and the impact of human activity on wildlife. Her research is conducted both in the field, at sites in Kenya and throughout Canada, as well as at the Toronto Zoo, where she has volunteered as their Behaviorist for over 25 years.
