Welsh teenager snares rare white mole

CARMARTHEN, Wales, April 3 (UPI) -- Experts said a white mole caught in a farm trap set by a Welsh teenager is a one in 100,000 animal.

Gary Childs, 17, of Carmarthen, who makes extra money by setting mole traps on farms, said he was stunned when he went to check on one of his traps recently and discovered it contained an albino mole, The Mirror reported Wednesday.

"I'd heard of white moles but never seen one," Childs said. "So when I saw it in the trap I couldn't believe my eyes -- I was certainly shocked."

Childs, who said farmers pay him about $15 per mole he catches on their properties, said he discovered a stuffed albino mole recently sold for about $908 on eBay.

Brian Alderton, founder of the British Traditional Molecatchers Register, said only about one in 100,000 moles have the unusual coloration.

"I've been catching moles for 15 years and I have never caught one and I have caught thousands of moles," Alderton said. "I know people who have been catching for 30 years and they have never caught one.

Childs said he has not yet decided what to do with the animal.