Did raccoons really steal pages from the SFU Library's website?

Thankfully, no.

On April 1, 2025, visitors to the Library's website received an error page on their first visit of the day to the website. 

The error page featured a raccoon who had "interfered" with the Library's website. 

Visitors could click a link on the error page to go to the correct and current version of the page.

Error screen

Visitors saw this screen:

Our April Fool's Day message to SFU students, faculty, staff, and other visitors

 The SFU Library's main website is undergoing an attack by technologically adept campus raccoons.

Library users may notice missing webpages as a result of this unprecedented security breach. 

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 If you get the "raccoon" error message, use the link at the bottom of the message to continue to your page, or try your URL or search again.

Staff working to secure the site and restore services

Please be assured that all available staff are working to re-secure Library websites and online services.

Stay safe: Raccoons are wild animals

Teams have also been dispatched to Tim Horton's and Nester's to pick up snacks, to entice the raccoons to a safer area. 

If you see our staff with Timbits or fresh fruit, please stay clear. Raccoons are wild animals and can be unpredictable. 

Investigation underway

Our IT staff's first priority is restoring regular services, however researchers in other areas of the Library are already investigating possible causes, to reduce the chances of similar emergency situations in future.

Current theories include:

• The "infinite number of raccoons with an infinite number of laptops" hypothesis: With this many raccoons on campus, it is inevitable that they will eventually break into online systems.
• Possible connections to animal-intelligence experiments elsewhere on campus. While we are not aware of SFU research to develop super-smart-raccoons, we have not ruled out this possibility.

Please stay tuned for updates.