Albino raccoon seen again, species confirmed

By Bruce Walton

bwalton@vindy.com

LOWELLVILLE

Last Thursday, Phyllis Nolfi saw what she believed to be an albino raccoon.

By Sunday, Nolfi’s neighbor, Carla White, had a much-closer encounter with the mammalian oddity.

White saw the animal devouring some dog food she left on the porch to attract it. When she opened her front door, it scurried off into the ditch off the side of Bedford Road, but White took some close-up pictures of it before it took off.

“I mean we live in the country, and I’m sure this raccoon has been here for a while. I don’t think he just came out of nowhere,” White said. “I’m sure he’s been in the area, and we just noticed him.”

Upon closer inspection of the most-recent photos, Geoffrey Westerfield, assistant wildlife management supervisor at the Ohio Division of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife, identified the animal as an albino raccoon with confirmation of the animal’s pink eyes, a key indicator of albinism.

“It’s one of those things you probably see once in a lifetime for regular people,” Westerfield said.

Though it may seem extremely rare for most people, Westerfield said he and people working with wildlife see them “fairly regularly.”

Unfortunately, the survival rate of albino animals are very low because of health complications such as underdeveloped organs and limbs or the disadvantage they have in hiding from natural predators such as coyotes, skunks, foxes and especially other raccoons, Westerfield said.

Though one expert said the raccoon might have an easier time living in a populated area where it’s easier to find, others say it’s more at risk from humans hunting for its rare fur or run over by cars.