Yet another Toronto raccoon caught on camera foiling the city's raccoon-proof green bin
It's a raccoon world, we're just living in it (literally) — and the majestic nightbois of Toronto will take every chance they can get to prove that this city still belongs to them.
One portly procyon in Midtown Toronto casually demonstrated once again this weekend that not even the most expensive of human engineers can keep them away from the garbage they crave.
A blogTO reader sent in the following security camera footage from Sunday night of a trash panda knocking over his green bin with ease and using its adorably dexterous hands to not only rotate the box, but to grip and turn the handle on top of it, freeing the delicious contents inside.
It takes the wild animal roughly 15 to foil the most recent iteration of Toronto's $31-million raccoon-proof green bin.
This Toronto raccoon is having no problem getting into a raccoon-proof green bin 😂 #Toronto #Raccoon pic.twitter.com/vF41tU7FTP
— blogTO (@blogTO) October 20, 2021
"Raccoons are getting crazy!" noted the reader of his clever little visitor — but here's the thing: Toronto raccoons done been crazy. Crazy smart, that is, particularly when it comes to procuring food. It's why they're all so fat.
The raccoon seen in the video above is not the first to be captured on camera making light work of a green bin garbage heist. So many people have reported finding their high-tech "raccoon-resistant" bins tossed or filled with furry critters, in fact, that it's become sort of a running joke in the city.
Designed by Rehrig Pacific in California and originally distributed in 2016, Toronto's pricey new green bins were chosen specifically for their gravity locks, which can only be opened by pressing in and turning a circular latch with opposable thumbs.
Despite lacking this distinct primate feature, some raccoons in the city miraculously figured out how to spin the latch around anyway. Others quickly learned that the bins can also be opened by turning them upside down (the gravity lock releases at 110 degrees for ease of emptying into garbage trucks.)
When the bins are tipped over the lock mechanism fails. It’s a serious design error the raccoons took, like, 5 mins to figure out. They’re smarter than the folks at City Hall, apparently. We bungee cord ours to the porch to prevent it.
— ladyonabikeTO (@ladyonabikeTO) October 20, 2021
Others still have taken to simply chewing through the plastic, proving that, as NPR wrote in 2018, there really is "no stopping Toronto's uber-raccoon."
Respect, my brilliant little forest friends. Respect.
submitted to blogTO
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