Print Page - Mystery animal in Rochester puzzles experts

Rochester homeowner Gwen Byrd is scared to go into parts of her own home in the dark. She says a frightening-looking animal has been under her porch all winter long and may have dug a tunnel through the walls of her house.

The rodent-like animal is wrinkled, hairless and "walks like a dog." And it has lived there for at least two years.

She's desperate to be rid of it and keeps plugging up the holes it has dug around her house.

To no avail.

She couldn't even prove its existence until earlier this month, when her granddaughter Chardine'e Hunt photographed the animal outside Byrd's house on Flora Street just south of Corn Hill.

Byrd now has posted its photo on the Internet hoping someone can identify it.

"Nobody knows what it is," she said, adding that she has named it "Dimples."

Byrd has reached out to Vera Gorbunova, associate professor in the biology department at the University of Rochester.

"I am very puzzled by this animal, and so are my colleagues. It looks like a large hairless rodent, but we cannot identify it from the picture," Gorbunova told Byrd via email this week.

Gorbunova visited Byrd's home Wednesday afternoon, hoping to see Dimples for herself.

"It was gone by the time I got there," she said. "I did see the holes it is making. It is believable to me."

Gorbunova said they are anxious to capture Dimples and study it.

"If it is a new species, that is really, really exciting. If it really is a mutation, it could be the first time for something like this," she said.

UR researchers set a live trap outside Byrd's home Friday morning but came up empty.

Seneca Park Zoo Director Larry Sorel, after looking at the photo, said it could be a hairless groundhog: "While not common, it has been known to happen."

Larry Staub, Monroe County director of parks, agreed with the hairless groundhog theory.

"We have seen these in Highland Park, over the years. ... The most recent sighting was a few years back. Odd-looking creatures."

But Dimples doesn't waddle like a groundhog or hop like a squirrel, Byrd said. It also appears to be fearless.

"It will not run or anything. It is not scared of me when I see it. I am scared of it."

Byrd said she has "endured a nightmare" and has holes in the ground and on the side of her house to prove it.

"It's the nightmare on Flora Street," Byrd joked. "Why me?"

GMCLENDN@DemocratandChronicle.com

I have seen one of these in another article some where but can't remember when.

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