Anchorpoint Christian High School has discovered an eclectic
house guest.
”
I’ll tell you, there is a white gopher here. There is no
question in my mind,
”
asserts Ken Bradley, a physical education teacher of 10 years at
the school located on 2220 Pacheco Pass Highway.
Anchorpoint Christian High School has discovered an eclectic house guest.
“I’ll tell you, there is a white gopher here. There is no question in my mind,” asserts Ken Bradley, a physical education teacher of 10 years at the school located on 2220 Pacheco Pass Highway.
The “albino” creature made an appearance around 9:30 a.m. Monday during a P.E. class, according to Bradley. As students ran laps around the baseball diamond, he recalls a flash of white catching his eye.
“We are talking white,” he says. “Not blond” like the hair color, but white, “like a cotton T-shirt.”
He says the animal was about 6 inches in length, with a black nose.
“I could see its head come up, and I was aware it was a very unique critter,” he said, gazing at the burrow. “I’ve never seen a gopher that color.”
Bradley suspects the animal may have been disturbed by facility workers, who were working nearby on a sprinkler leak in the baseball field. For 15 minutes, he observed the “gopher” popping its head out of a dirt hole near the chain-link fence that circumnavigates the baseball field.
Campus Pastor Danny Kinoshita was also a witness.
At first, “I said ‘come on, Ken. There’s no such thing,'” said Kinoshita.
So he hopped on the computer, and searched “white gopher.”
As it turns out, Kinoshita says white gophers are incredibly rare – although he acknowledges the animal could also be an albino groundhog or mole.
According various to reports, a famous albino Canadian groundhog named Wiarton Willie is the star mascot of Wiarton in Bruce County, Ontario. Like SeaWorld’s iconic orca whale named Shamu, “the Willie phenomenon is passed down through generations, and today we have a very young and vibrant Willie at the helm,” writes Danielle Mulasmajic, economic development officer for the town of South Bruce Peninsula.
Kinoshita has placed calls to the San Diego Zoo, the San Francisco Zoo and the Minnesota Zoo, but “if no one claims it, I’m going to keep it as a pet,” he smiled.
There’s a possibility the varmint could be an albino rat, Kinoshita considered, but “rats don’t act like that,” said Bradley. “I know a rat versus a gopher.”
In spite of a cage enticingly baited with radishes, carrots and corn, the furry celebrity declined to make an appearance during a visit by the Dispatch Monday. Should Anchorpoint’s unusual guest reappear, Bradley has promised to send documentation.
“Hopefully we’re lucky enough that the trap works,” he said.
The school assures it has no plans no to exterminate the animal. The cage is built to trap; not harm.