Carolina Mystery Beast Is a Rare Abnormal Fox, Experts Say

Maryann Mott
for National Geographic News

March 21, 2006

A mystery animal is foraging in the grassy fields around a North Carolina company.

"I've never seen anything like this," said Jerri Durazo, a Tyco Electronics employee who photographed the animal.

The slender creature has a kangaroo-shaped head, big upright ears, and a long ratlike tail. From a distance the animal looks hairless, but closer inspection reveals that its coat is a sleek grayish brown.

For two months the animal has roamed the high-tech company's woodsy campus in Fuquay-Varina near Raleigh.

Dubbed the Tyco Animal by employees, the creature's daily appearances have caused quite a stir.

"Every time it would come out, everyone would crowd around the windows on that side of the building to see this thing," Durazo said.

Suburban Myth

Driven by curiosity, an employee posted the animal's picture on a North Carolina deer-hunting Web site.

Online visitors filled the site's pages with guesses about the beast's identity, ranging from the plausible to the preposterous.

"This could be a hairless Mexican dog," one writer suggested.

Another wrote, "It's a mythical Chupacabras, a dog-like creature that stealthily roam at night and suck the blood from goats in a vampire fashion."

Someone else suggested that "It really looks like some type of Jackal."

A photograph of the Tyco Animal was also sent to state wildlife experts.

Perry Sumner, a biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, said it's likely a red fox with a rare genetic condition known as Sampson, an abnormality in which the animal lacks a layer of fur called guard hair.

Without this thick outer coat for protection, the normally nocturnal fox would be forced to hunt during the day when it's warm and sleep under heated buildings at night.

In recent years, Sumner said, other Sampson foxes have been spotted in urban areas around the state.

Colorado and Alaska have also had sightings.

Sumner saw his first Sampson fox about 20 years ago after a trapper caught and killed one.

Sumner suspects the genetic disorder affects less than one percent of the fox population.

Let It Be

State wildlife biologist Brad Gunn also believes it's a Sampson fox. But he doesn't rule out the possibility that it's an animal with mange—a hair-loss disease—or that it's someone's escaped exotic pet.

"There's always an outside chance that something like this is an exotic that was brought in from Africa or Asia," he said.

But without seeing the animal up close or conducting a DNA test, Gunn said, it's hard to tell from just photographs what it really is.

The biologists said they have no plans to capture the animal, since the Sampson abnormality can't be treated, and the creature isn't posing a threat to people or wildlife.

"Frankly, the animal would be put through a lot more stress and suffering just to be caught and handled," Gunn said.

Back at Tyco, the employees are divided on what to do.

"Half the people want to hunt it and study it postmortem," Durazo said. "The other half says it looks skinny and we need to feed it."

Free Email News Updates
Sign up for our Inside National Geographic newsletter. Every two weeks we'll send you our top stories and pictures (see sample).