That's right everyone! The team in Australia actually happened to catch - er, again, I mean rescue - what appears to be a real live Pikachu! The five month old possum bears golden fur due to the unnatural amount of melanin it produces, causing it to look like the popular electric mouse mascot of a multi-billion dollar franchise.
While it's true that it would be a dream come true for most people to find a Pikachu - even if it is just an animal like this possum who happens to heavily resemble the creature, this genetic mutation is actually quite unfortunate and dangerous for the possum.
"One of the issues with unusual colors, particularly if they are pale, is that this is a nocturnal animal and if they are pale they are obvious to predators like an owl." - Kath Handasyde, Melbourne University Scholar
And honestly, when you think about it the way Handasyde puts it, it's rather simple. Of course the light colored possums would be the first to get gobbled up. Shiny variants don't work the same in real life, apparently. Anyhow, Pikachu is the only possum of his color to be discovered in Australia, and so it has been decided not to release the animal back into it's natural habitat at this time.
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