Raccoons On Footpath At Night. Photo: Andrea Brewer / EyeEm (Getty)
Have you ever wondered why raccoons don’t have the balls to rip through your trash can at noon?
Researchers at the University of California-Berkeley have determined that raccoons and other mammals are becoming increasingly nocturnal to avoid the bullshit human beings are throwing their way during the daytime.
As the human grid continues to expand across the globe, more animal species have decided the best way to keep from being disturbed or annoyed by their presence is to sleeping during the day. Hence, their “daily routine” has shifted to the night.
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“We’re just beginning to scratch the surface on how these behavioral changes are affecting entire ecosystems,” ecologist Kaitlyn Gaynor said. “Species for millions of years have been adapting to diurnal activity, but now we’re driving them back into the night and may be driving natural selection.”
The researchers at Berkeley used data from 76 studies of 62 species across six continents. The conclusion reached was “human disruption is making these animals 1.36 times more nocturnal.” In layman terms, animals who used to split their livelihood between day and night equally have increased nightly activities by 68 percent.
In a related story, human activities during the day can also drive other humans towards being nocturnal. For example, my mom says she works third shift strictly because the people she used to work with during the day were “dickheads.”
