black raccoon

[JFK52]

Wisconsin has a hunting and trapping season for raccoons. It runs from mid October to mid February each year. With that comment in mind, let me just say that I found a raccoon that had been hit by a car in front of my house last week. The weird thing about this raccoon was that it was almost a pure solid black color throughout it's main body section. At first I thought it was a feral cat of some type. It also had a shorter than normal tail which had normal coloration to it. I thought this was an anomaly but yesterday while driving home in the middle of the afternoon, I had a similar raccoon run across my road about a mile from my house. There appears to be a group of these oddly colored critters in my area.
Anyone else ever see a raccoon like this? Is this a color phase variation? I have shot hundreds of raccoons during the open season in Wisconsin and have never seen one with this type of coloration. Color me confused?

 

[The Fishman]

While I have never seen a black raccoon, I have seen one without a mask. This was on a barrier island and I caught him while he was eating on a dead cormorant. I am sure that genetic variation in raccoons exists and you can probably find all kinds of colors if you look hard enough.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I use to hunt coon, and yes, we would see a few blacks ones each year, and on occasions, a white one.

 

[H20fwler]

I trapped one in our dryer room at the farm maybe thirty years ago, it was all black with a silver stripe on its chest it was that years coon so was a medium size. Only one I've ever seen in person.

 

[Bszweda]

Kill them all they knocked over my garbage can last night!

 

[Terrific_tom]

Just a color phase. The fur on black racoons is pretty much worthless, however if you find the right taxidermist he may pay top dollar for it.

 

[weekender21]

I've seen a white one on the coast in central CA. It was a regular at a campground I've spent a lot of time at. More of a cream color with darker cream colored rings on the tail.