Saturday, January 16, 2010

Does anyone know anything about all black squirrels with bright orange tails. I can find no info on them.?

My yard is filled with black squirrels and once in a while I get a grey one. The last few days two unusual squirrels have shown up. One with a fully orange tail and another with the end half orange. They have no other colours on them besides the black body and orange tail. I live in central Canada near the great lakes. Does anyone know anything about these animals or where I can get information on them? I have tried wikipedia and a general internet search with no luck. Thanks.Does anyone know anything about all black squirrels with bright orange tails. I can find no info on them.?
This is interesting. Gray squirrels come in all colors and combinations. They may be a cross of these colors but kind of doubt it. What I'm wondering is, are there melanistic forms of pine squirrels? I have never heard of one but anything is possible. A pine squirrel has a rust colored tail with black bands. Or are they a cross between a black gray squirrel and a pine squirrel or a fox squirrel? A cross such as that would be very rare. A female gray I have here has a lot of deep red color in her pelt and tail. Her mother was very red. Unusual for a gray squirrel in our area. Can you get good pics of these squirrels and send them to me? I would love to see these unusual squirrels of yours'.Does anyone know anything about all black squirrels with bright orange tails. I can find no info on them.?
Such a squirrel may have been seen near Princeton University, in New Jersey. It's apparently just a color morph. Here's some info from Princeton's archives:





http://www.princeton.edu/~paw/archive_ol…











';Back in Black





Myth: Several years ago, deep in the bowels of one of Princeton's biology buildings, an inhumane and unnatural science experiment produced a breed of black squirrels. Some of the squirrels either escaped or were liberated by a zealous animal-rights group, and now these new über-squirrels are slowly taking over the campus.





Fact: Black squirrels may be ubiquitous at Princeton, but they are also perfectly natural. Black and gray squirrels are merely different color morphs of the same species, the eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). Populations of black squirrels appear naturally in other places in the Northeast, particularly in isolated populations such as those in city parks, and they have been around for a long time -- in 1655, David De Vries included squirrels ';black as pitch and gray'; in his list of the wild mammals of New Amsterdam. Princeton, however, may have its own special kind of squirrel. Henry Horn, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology -- and far too serious a man to pull paw's leg -- reports having seen in the area around McCosh Infirmary a hybrid form of the eastern gray squirrel with a black body and an orange tail.





In fact, squirrels have been a bizarre obsession at Princeton for decades. In 1926, a student writer in paw noted that ';a depletion has been noticed in the supply of squirrels on our greens.'; Over the next 15 years, letter writers discussed various ways of boosting the population. One suggestion, apparently never carried out, called for the university to keep a stock of captive squirrels and periodically release them.';





Come to think of it, I have some more info from personal experience. I used to live in Port Huron, Michigan, where ordinary red squirrels are found, and just across the Bluewater Bridge, in Sarnia, was a population of black squirrels. The squirrels used to hitch rides across the bridge and interbreed, the most common off-color being charcoal grey. That could help to explain the black-and-orange squirrels you've seen.
';Black squirrels are not a separate species at all, but a melanistic morpheme, casually known to scientists as a “color morph,” a fairly rare genetic variation. In the Midwest, as far as has been determined, all of the black squirrels are actually morphs of the gray squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis.


Some black squirrels aren’t pure black, but have unpredictable patches of gray or white. Some have even been reported as having a black front half and gray hindquarters or other strange combinations.'; http://chicagowildernessmag.org/issues/s…








';Black squirrels may be ubiquitous at Princeton, but they are also perfectly natural. Black and gray squirrels are merely different color morphs of the same species, the eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). Populations of black squirrels appear naturally in other places in the Northeast, particularly in isolated populations such as those in city parks, and they have been around for a long time -- in 1655, David De Vries included squirrels ';black as pitch and gray'; in his list of the wild mammals of New Amsterdam. Princeton, however, may have its own special kind of squirrel. Henry Horn, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology -- and far too serious a man to pull paw's leg -- reports having seen in the area around McCosh Infirmary a hybrid form of the eastern gray squirrel with a black body and an orange tail.';





http://www.princeton.edu/~paw/archive_ol…
Interbreeding seems likely. I live in London (U.K.) and my local squirrels are black, grey, red, and combinations of grey and red mainly. They are mostly a lot smaller than the ones I've seen in Canada though!
Maybe it's a chirrel, half chipmunk, half squirrel

No comments:

Post a Comment