Nearly every species in the world has a rare albino variant and they're always neat, but some get more attention than others.
You'd think that for a species as numerous and visible as racoons, we would see albino variants more often, but they are actually super rare.
And pretty cute too.
And because racoons are quite good at being stealthy, the likelihood of one being spotted by a human is 1 in 750,000.
Many people may spot one as it scurries under the porch and assume it's a possum.
Blond racoons have leucism, which is a partial loss of pigmentation. Many of these trash pandas still have stripes and a mask, but they are brown or golden in color. They are rare, but still much more common than true albinos.
An easy way to tell albinism from leucism is that only a true albino has pink eyes.
Racoons have evolved their unique coloring to be the perfect camouflage for their habitat and being bright white instead makes them an easy target for predators.
So if you see one, be it fully albino or just blond, be sure to snap a pic, because it's a once in a lifetime opportunity.
