{"id":565107,"date":"2026-03-27T20:45:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T20:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/565107\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T20:45:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T20:45:16","slug":"uk-man-finds-super-rare-albino-squirrel-after-mistakening-it-for-a-plastic-bag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/565107\/","title":{"rendered":"UK man finds super rare albino squirrel after mistakening it for a plastic bag"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A dad out on a walk went to inspect a \u2018moving a plastic bag\u2019 \u2014 which turned out to be a rare one-in-100,000 albino squirrel.<\/p>\n<p>Oliver Reynolds, 45, was strolling around Mote Park in Maidstone, Kent, on March 23 when something caught his eye.<\/p>\n<p>The warehouse worker thought it was a \u201cwhite bag, a bit of rubbish\u201d at first.<\/p>\n<p>But as he got closer, he saw the \u2018bag\u2019 moving \u2014 and realized it was a white squirrel with red eyes.<\/p>\n<p>A dad out on a walk went to inspect a \u2018moving a plastic bag\u2019 \u2013 which turned out to be a rare one-in-100,000 albino squirrel.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to Sell Us Your Story after the sighting, Oliver said: \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe my eyes, to be honest with you.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought it was a white bag, a bit of rubbish.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen it started jumping around I thought \u2018crikey!\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Oliver Reynolds, 45, was strolling around Mote Park in Maidstone, Kent, on March 23 when something caught his eye. Oliver Reynolds \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI tried to get as close as I could to get the picture, and I could see its red eyes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was really shocked to see it in that sort of area \u2013 I\u2019ve never seen one before in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to one 1998 study, squirrels are the only known albino mammal that can survive successfully in the wild.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was really shocked to see it in that sort of area \u2013 I\u2019ve never seen one before in my life,\u201d Reynolds said. Oliver Reynolds \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p>This is due to cone-rich retinas in squirrel eyes, which means their vision is less disrupted than that of other mammals with the condition.<\/p>\n<p>The chances of an albino squirrel being born are about one in 100,000, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p>According to one 1998 study, squirrels are the only known albino mammal that can survive successfully in the wild. Oliver Reynolds \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p>The chances of an albino squirrel being born are about one in 100,000, according to reports. Oliver Reynolds \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p>Oliver added, \u201cI showed my daughter, and she said, \u2018wow.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy missus had a look, and she was really shocked \u2013 she was gutted she didn\u2019t come with me on the walk, to be honest, she was at walk.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you get to my age, you appreciate those sorts of things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A dad out on a walk went to inspect a \u2018moving a plastic bag\u2019 \u2014 which turned out&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[2837,49,48,66,47597,127,323,883],"class_list":{"0":"post-565107","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-squirrels","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-wildlife","15":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}