A strange-looking creature that was seen trotting happily along train tracks in Oregon left even wildlife experts baffled.
Richard Melling and his wife were taking a morning walk across the Sellwood Bridge in Portland earlier this month when they noticed the animal in the distance.
melling said OregonLive: ‘He definitely looked wild and looked like a puppy. “He was like a very, very happy puppy.”
But after taking a closer look, he realized the creature was not a dog and took out his phone to record a video in hopes he could identify it later.
However, even wildlife experts struggled to identify exactly what the animal was until they finally captured it a week later and determined it was an arctic fox.
Strange-looking creature seen trotting happily along train tracks in Oregon left wildlife experts baffled
In Melling’s video taken from about 40 feet away, a small white fox-like animal with a long tail and spindly legs could be seen prancing around the train tracks.
He sniffed the ground as if he were looking for something before running away.
Melling told OregonLive, “It was fun and fun.” It was a very interesting thing to find.’
Experts later concluded that the animal must be a fox, but had difficulty determining what type from the images.
Oregon Department of Wildlife biologist Benjamin Cate wrote in an email shared with OregonLive: “Honestly, we’re not 100 percent sure about it.
The white fox trotted around as Portland resident Richard Melling and his wife filmed it.
Several experts agreed that the animal was a fox but could not determine what type.
‘This animal looks more like an arctic fox than any fox native to our area. “This is potentially some type of hybrid animal that escaped from captivity, but we also cannot 100% rule out that it is a wild leucistic gray (white) fox,” he continued.
A leucistic fox would mean that it has less pigmentation in its skin and coat than normal, giving it a pale appearance.
However, Cate also told OregonLive that this coloration is more common in red foxes than gray ones; However, he added that the creature’s ears and snout were not typical of a red fox.
He added that the animal looked young and was “certainly rare.”
Jennifer Osburn Eliot, who oversees the Oregon Zoo’s North American area, said OPB: ‘I can tell you that we have gray foxes in Oregon, red foxes (most, but not all, are invasive), and there are people who keep foxes as pets (which may or may not be legal).
“I’ve never heard of an arctic fox this far south.”
It wasn’t until a good Samaritan picked up the lost animal and took it to a shelter that experts were able to determine that it was actually an arctic fox.
Arctic foxes are not typically found in Portland and tend to live in much colder regions such as Alaska, Greenland, and Iceland.
The fox was thin, weighing only 6.5 pounds and dehydrated when he was rescued.
The fox was nursed back to health at the Bird Alliance of Oregon Wildlife Care Center.
It is believed that the fox accidentally escaped from captivity or was abandoned by its owner.
Ali Berman, spokesperson for the Bird Alliance of Oregon Wildlife Care Center, said KOIN 6 News: ‘Although we still have no information about where the arctic fox came from or how it arrived in Portland, we believe the animal has only known one life in captivity.
“The fox does not display a species-appropriate fear response to people and was in fact approaching humans when it was rescued.”
Because of this, the fox will not be returned to the wild.
An unidentified man was seen walking a fox that looked similar to the animal Melling saw in a nearby park.
The fox was thin, weighed just 6.5 pounds and was dehydrated when it was rescued, the outlet reported.
Arctic foxes are not typically found in Portland and tend to live in much colder regions such as Alaska, Greenland, and Iceland. It does not have the skills to survive outside of this habitat.
A social media user shared a photo of a man walking a fox on a leash in Sellwood Riverfront Park, near the area where Melling and his wife saw the white fox, and asked, “Does it have to be the same one?” However, this was not confirmed.
