Nova Scotia's Hope For Wildlife welcomes 'completely bald' raccoon
Hope For Wildlife, a wildlife rehabilitation centre in Seaforth, N.S., has recently taken an animal into its care and its appearance may have some people doing a double take.
The centre posted photos of a northern raccoon with what is believed to be alopecia – otherwise known as hair loss – on its Facebook page Wednesday morning.
The animal is described as “completely bald" in addition to being “not friendly” and “feisty.”
The post says the animal is a female, though Hope Swinimer, the founder and director of Hope for Wildlife, later referred to it as a male.
She says the centre received a call from people in Cape Breton who discovered the animal, but they weren’t sure what it was at first.
“Once we got a live trap and were able to bring him in, it was clear that he was a raccoon, but he’s a bald raccoon," Swinimer says.
Swinimer says she has only see two bald raccoons in the 25 years she has been doing wildlife work.
“We don’t see it very often, but in every species we do get cases in where the animals come in bald, but it might happen once a year,” she says.
A bald raccoon is pictured at Hope For Wildlife, a wildlife rehabilitation centre in Seaforth, N.S. (Source: Facebook/Hope For Wildlife)
Hope For Wildlife says the critter could have an autoimmune disorder, though it hasn’t been fully diagnosed yet.
“We’re going to sedate him over the next couple of days, there’s no big hurry because he’s healthy, and just do some skin scraping, maybe a biopsy just to be sure it’s something genetic, like alopecia, something like that,” says Swinimer.
The wildlife rehabilitation centre says it is “amazed” the animal was able to live through the winter without any injuries -- or fur.
“How this little guy lived through the whole winter without any fur, I don’t know," Swinimer says. "He would of succumbed to the temperatures if he wasn’t probably sleeping away a lot of the winter and not coming out very often, but he looks really healthy.”
But can the animal go back to the wild without fur? Swinimer says it’s hard to say.
“I think the long-term prognosis is good,” she says. “However, he may not be able to have a typical life in the wild.”
A raccoon with alopecia has a bite to eat at a wildlife rehabilitation centre in Seaforth, N.S. (Source: Facebook/Hope For Wildlife)
For now, the raccoon has been given the name "Rufus" by one of Hope For Wildlife's staff members after the naked mole-rat character on Kim Possible, a Disney TV series.
Hope For Wildlife is no stranger to interesting raccoons – they’ve previously welcomed several albino ones.
For more Nova Scotia news visit our dedicated provincial page.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
India's foreign minister reacts to murder charges, claims Canada welcomes criminals
India's Foreign Affairs Minister accused Canada of welcoming criminals from his country in response to the RCMP's recent arrests in a homicide that has roiled tensions between the two countries.
15-year-old boy stabbed in Ottawa on Thursday dies
A 15-year old boy who was critically injured after a stabbing in Nepean on Thursday has died of his injuries, Ottawa's English public school board said Sunday.
Dash cam catches moment suspected drunk driver hits parked car, sends it careening into North Shore flower shop
Police say it’s fortunate no one was injured or killed in a collision at North Vancouver’s Park and Tilford shopping centre Saturday evening that sent one vehicle careening into a flower shop and another into a set of concrete barriers outside a Winners store.
Actor Bernard Hill, of 'Titanic' and 'Lord of the Rings,' has died at 79
Actor Bernard Hill, who delivered a rousing cry before leading his people into battle in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' and went down with the ship as the captain in 'Titanic,' has died.
'A tiny city:' Pro-Palestinian campus protesters organize for another week
Pro-Palestinian activists have set up tents at universities in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and Montreal, following a wave of similar protests at campuses in the United States linked to the Israel-Hamas war.
Lawsuit against Meta asks if Facebook users have right to control their feeds using external tools
Do social media users have the right to control what they see — or don't see — on their feeds?
A Holocaust survivor will mark that history differently after the horrors of Oct. 7
This year's Holocaust Remembrance Day, which begins on Sunday evening in Israel, carries a heavier weight than usual for many Jews around the world.
Princess Anne lays wreath at Battle of Atlantic ceremony; honours late Queen
Princess Anne saluted Canadian veterans and current forces members and honoured her late mother during separate ceremonies Sunday in Victoria as she wrapped up a three-day British Columbia West Coast royal visit.
El Nino weakening doesn't mean cooler temperatures this summer, forecasters say
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.