Incognito

Finding an albino is rare, but the chances of finding three in a litter of four? Try odds of one in 10 million.

In Spring of 2009, Gates Wildlife Control discovered a litter of four baby raccoons, three of which were Albino. When we arrived on site we discovered a raccoon of normal colouration and one albino baby in the garage of the home. Upon a further search in the attic we discovered one more albino baby, all about six weeks in age. 

This was an extremely rare find. Only 1 in approximately 500,000 raccoons are born Albino and for three of them to be born in one litter is even more uncommon.

Our company removes about 1,500 litters of raccoons from homes each year. In 35 years of business, I’ve only seen five albinos. In each case, the raccoons were young and still supported by their mothers. After that, experts say albinos have trouble thriving.

The executive director of the Toronto Wildlife Centre, Nathalie Karvonen, said Albino raccoons are likely to have problems with their vision, hearing or other body systems.

All four babies were placed in our heated release box on the roof and their mother picked them up one by one and relocated them to her secondary den site in the neighbourhood.