THUNDER BAY — A group of Thunder Bay residents who drove to Manitoba for a pickleball tournament found the highlight of the trip not in Winnipeg but in a marsh alongside Highway 17.
During their trip back, they encountered a rare white moose just off the road between Upsala and Ignace.
Thunder Bay resident Erin Manahan has posted a video of the sighting on Facebook.
She told TBnewswatch she was travelling with two friends on Sunday when they came upon four moose, one of which stood out.
"We were driving home, and we had seen probably around nine moose before then. Then one moose walked onto the road, so we had to stop, and Troy saw the white moose first. I just thought how lucky we were because I know they're pretty rare to see. It's definitely something special that you only probably get to see once in a lifetime."
Manahan described the cow moose as having "a little bit of colour on it. It wasn't like pure white."
Bryan Merritt, who was also in the pickleball tournament, was driving home with his wife in a different vehicle, and they too had a chance to see the same animal about a half hour later.
"We were watching for moose. The bugs were out in full force, and we had already seen eight by that time. We came around a corner, saw a vehicle pulled over, and looked into the marsh. There were three in there, one of which was pretty bright white. So we turned around and watched the white one travel back into the bush pretty quick. It was sure a shock to see such a white animal."
Merritt has sent some photos and video to Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry staff.
"I've always been keenly interested in wildlife, and it was something that I'm sure I'll not have the opportunity to see again," he said.
Moose with white fur can be more vulnerable to predators because they are easier to see against a backdrop of trees.
The animals may obtain this feature from a recessive gene that causes them to grow white with specks of brown – a condition referred to as piebald.
True albino moose suffer a lack of pigmentation due to a genetic mutation.
Merritt, who has a background in wildlife resource management and enforcement, noted that in this instance the moose has a pink nose.
"As I understand, there's various stages of albinism, the total white and the pink eye thing, pink appendages and what not, and then there's stages of that. So for sure it's not a full albino, but it's got that pinkish nose. I think it's got some form of albinism."