Spotlight: Red Raccoons
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 23rd, 2010
The International Cryptozoology Museum has on exhibition a red raccoon, presently being displayed in its front window. This is actually a rare animal, a special color phase of the normal raccoon. They are infrequently seen and less often caught, in the wild. Seeing one is less common than viewing a black squirrel.
Photographer: Hillary Oppmann.
This red-phase raccoon was spotted during the Summer of 2009, in the River Gorge, at the Oak Savanna restoration area in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Red phase raccoons are a naturally-occurring uncommon color variant — with orangish or yellowish fur instead of the usual gray and black and white. These raccoons are also referred to as “rufous-phase” or “melanistic” raccoons.
Mounts of these raccoons are likewise scarce.
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Loren Coleman no longer writes for Cryptomundo. His archived posts remain here at Cryptomundo.
There’s a nice example of a mounted light-phase raccoon at the Klondike National Park in Skagway, AK, appropriately enough on display at the historical restoration of 1898 Gold Rush Era Mascot Saloon.
I live in Western Kentucky. And last fall we had a female that would come up to the porch and eat cat food. She was a beautiful dark red. And was obvious that she had a litter of young. She also seemed to be a bit more aggressive than the normal raccoon.