Black Squirrels

[Nyboy]

Growing up in a small city with no predators squirrels where everywhere. Most of them where grey but black was not uncommon. Red or white was very rare, I don't think I ever saw a wild white squirrel. At work there is one or more black squirrels, he is not shy often running around the lawn. I always get a little supersized when clients are amazed at seeing a black squirrel. Do you have black squirrels where you live ?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know how many species or sub-species of squirrels there are in the US. The two I'm familiar with are the fox squirrel (sometime called red squirrel) and the grey squirrel. These two often co-exist, but usually one dominates more than the other. Growing up in the ridges of East Tennessee I mostly saw the grey squirrel but you 'd occasionally see a red one. Here the red squirrel is more common.

I don't know if a black squirrel is a variation in color of one of these or is it's own subset. You can get some variation in colors or maybe the right word is shade. I've seen some squirrels darker than others, but the difference is rather subtle. I don't remember ever seeing one that I'd call black.

 

[thistlebloom]

I've never seen a black squirrel.

Out here on my property we have small red squirrels, although only the tips of their guard hairs are reddish. In town the squirrels are much bigger with a yellow gold shading.

The squirrels locally haven't been a big nuisance in general, but just this week one of them chewed a huge hole in the lid of the trash can that I keep the BOSS in. I also found a chewed hole in one of my not-cheap hay tarps. I guess it's time to start managing them.

 

[Nyboy]

wow I will get some photos they are as black as a lab

 

[Nyboy]

not my photo

 

[valley ranch]

These cut little rats are like those with the pointed snouts Rats and cause the same transfer of germs and mess and damage to people and property, I have a similar type getting into the greenhouse, a little chicken wire won't stop them like it will a rabbit.

 

[ninnymary]

We have squirrels but they are all brown. Can't stand their digging in my garden!

Mary

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I don't know if a black squirrel is a variation in color of one of these or is it's own subset. You can get some variation in colors or maybe the right word is shade. I've seen some squirrels darker than others, but the difference is rather subtle. I don't remember ever seeing one that I'd call black.

Black (or, if you want to use the right word melanistic) squirrels are a type of grey. Basically they're greys that have WAAY too much melanin (it's basically the opposite of albino) That's why they will usually have sort of brownish bellies (since a normal grey has a sort of tan one) From what I remember it takes three recessive genes to bring melanism in for squirrels, so if you have a fully heterozygous pair of greys 1/64 of thier offspring will be black.

Though I am told that, way back when black was actually the commoner color . The change in ratio has a lot to do with where the squirrels are living. Black has the advantage in deep woods (where there are more shadows to camouflage into) Grey has the advantage in more open areas. So the number of surviving blacks diminished as the vast forests of the east coast were cleared.

I'm not sure I have EVER seen a red squirrel in person. There was one that lived in a tree off the Plant science building at Cornell I would sometimes watch that might have been red, but as it lived high up and (as far as I know) never descended to ground level I couldn't ever get a good look to be sure (that squirrel was also only about 1/3 the size of a normal grey, so it might have had some other problems too,

I also remember one that lived near the campus store that had something wrong with the pigment in its tail so that the tail was basically apricot above the very base.

And in our back now there is an odd one, who has almost NO tail (not as in "lost it to an accident, and in (as far as I know, never had one) except for a bunny like tuft. Weird thing is, the lack of counter balance from the tail has caused him or her to develop rabbit like legs as well, and so it moves like a rabbit. Must work for it, since it's enormous (it's basically the SIZE of a rabbit too. And yes, I am sure it is NOT a rabbit.)

And while I have never seen one in person photographs show me that there are melanistic (so black) chipmunks too.

 

[digitS']

No, I have never seen a black squirrel.

I was thinking to comment on our Pine Squirrel, thinking that it was unusual. Maybe just unusual by comparison to the Eastern Grey Squirrel that is so common in people's yards. The American Red Squirrel (Pine Squirrel) lives right across Canada into Alaska and south into the Rockies, forests around the Great Lakes, and in Northeast United States (according to Wikipedia). It does not like people and wouldn't even come close to the cabin when I lived out in the woods.

The Western Grey Squirrel is bigger than the Eastern but also doesn't like people.

digitS'

 

[thistlebloom]

Well I think black squirrels are pretty!