Legally Leucistic

Have you ever seen a blonde groundhog? If you haven’t, there’s a reason for that: it’s because they’re rare! If you pay attention, groundhogs are usually dark brown in colouring. The blonde or white coloring typically happens due to leucism (partial pigmentation loss, often with dark eyes). These lighter-coloured groundhogs are sometimes called blonde woodchucks. This groundhog was found in the west end of Ottawa last week. And if you look closely, you can see woodchuck here has a little something in between in its teeth.