When Bo was brought into a wildlife rescue centre in the Wirral, Merseyside, last month, staff there initially thought his fur was brown.

But it turned out he was so dirty and unwell that it was hiding a secret – that he has leucism, a rare condition where his fur’s pigmentation is so light it appears almost white.

Gray Taylor, from the centre, caught Bo in a trap after receiving a call from a local woman about a fox that had turned up in a state in her garden.

The 36-year-old spent three weeks brushing Bo’s fur and giving him eye drops and started to see the fox’s true lighter pigment fur as he returned back to health.

Now Bo has been released back into the wild and ‘shot out the carrier.’

Gray, who runs the fox unit at Pawprints Wildlife Rescue, from the Wirral, Merseyside, said: ‘Bo’s eyes were shut by scabs.

‘He was a really sorry sight.He was withdrawn and behaving like a dog.

‘As he got healthier he got more sprightly and would growl at me. This behaviour is a good sign.

‘When Bo came in his fur was darker because of the dirt. But his fur coat is lighter. He’s a special fox.’

The fox unit received a call about Bo in November 2022, and chose to bring him into the centre when they saw the state of him.

‘He was in immediate need of help,’ Gray said.

‘If we hadn’t have come we would have died.

‘He was covered in mange – a skin disease caused by mites.

‘He was sitting up in about a week.’

Gray gave Bo daily brushes and eye drops to cure his bacterial conjunctivitis and began to see a change in his behaviour and fur colour.