Half black half fox squirrel ?

i recently shot a half black half fox squirrel in the state squirrel season and i was wonder if anyone has ever seen something like this...the top half is a normal looking fox squirrel but the bottom half going from part of the tail to part of its face and all of it in between is black on the underneath side..if anyone has any info on this id appreciate it.Half black half fox squirrel ?
Yes. They occur naturally in both fox and gray squirrels. The full black ones are usually referred to as a ';black morph';. There are also albinos in both species. When one is partially black or white, some refer to them as piebald, or ';pied'; for short. This term is used to describe this type of coloration in many animals.


Below is a link to some info, but it's on the gray squirrel, which more commonly has full black morphs.


The coloration does not come from a crossing of species, or even different subspecies. Rather, it is color variation within a species. Therefore, unless there is something else wrong, they are all going to be fertile.Half black half fox squirrel ?
In my area of Indiana, we have black squirrels, which I'm told are a variety of the gray species, as well as fox squirrels. We see what look to be a mix of the gray and black fairly often, and once in a while fox and black.





My guess is that the gray/black mixes are fertile, because they're basically just a mix of different ';races'; of gray squirrels, but the fox/gray or fox/black, being true hybrids, like a mule, are probably sterile.
Oh sure, I get them all the time on my land , here in Tennessee. I also have a bunch of squirrels that have white faces ( they are fox squirrels). There is a town in Illinois that is the home to all white squirrels, I it is Olney , Illinois.. . As far as I was always told it is the only place in America that has this type of squirrels.
saw an article in adventuresinairgunhunting.com a while back about it.