Albino porcupine rescued by British Columbia sanctuary

UPI ^ | DEC. 15, 2022 / 5:08 PM | By Ben Hooper

[Red Badger]

Dec. 15 (UPI) -- A British Columbia animal shelter announced an unusual "new guest" at its facility -- an albino porcupine.

The Northern Lights Animal Sanctuary said in a social media post that the porcupine, dubbed Coconut, was found chewing through hydraulic hoses and electric cables on a Smithers resident's property.

The sanctuary said the porcupine is an albino, meaning its body and eyes are completely devoid of pigment. They said the condition is very rare in porcupines.

The post said the "new guest" will receive "room service" at the sanctuary for a few months.

Sanctuary officials said Coconut will spend the winter with them, but may be released back into the wild sometime next year.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

As a rule, albinos of most species do not survive well in nature.

[Bedford Forrest]

Long ago and far away my wife and I were headed for the top of Rattlesnake Mountain [Squam Lake]well before dawn, pitch black, so as to catch the sunrise. Flashlights??? What for? The sun was going to rise and soon. With us was Tara, our female Siberian - just under two years - from a very good line - extremely fast and seriously alpha. On Squam she would go after beavers with serious intent. On this dark morning she went off trail and killed a medium sized porcupine. I thought she had a woodchuck or G** forbid - a raccoon - until another couple showed up with a flashlight and gave us the bad news. Long story short - the inside of her mouth looked like a Fuller brush. The local vet took 2 hours and change to sort things out. I asked what the chances were that the Tar dog was going to try to even things up with the next porcupine. He said, this dog??? -for sure. He had one patient, a big male Lab, would kill a porcupine every time - just didn’t mind the result.