Canis lupus hominis

Posted in wildlife | Tagged black gray squirrel, black squirrel, Eastern gray squirrel, gray squirrel, melanistic gray squirrel | 3 Comments

3 Responses

1. on January 8, 2010 at 11:04 pm Ashley S

   My cat gets bullied by the not so portly squirrels around here. I would hate to see one of these guys get angry.

   
   
2. on January 9, 2010 at 4:17 am Viatecio

   The tubby black squirrel that frequents our yard seems to get on quite well, but the others chase it away when it comes up to the house to forage under the bird feeder. It’s either not his (her?) territory or the bastards are racist at heart. Never really been able to get such a good look at it to see if it’s got the red tinges though.

   We’ll livetrap and relocate them occasionally if the population seems to be getting dense, but Mother’s made it quite plain that her black squirrel is off-limits. I would concur. While not rare by any stretch, they’re certainly unique, and it’s surviving quite well despite the color difference.

   
   
   • on January 9, 2010 at 4:34 am retrieverman

     Our population got started with one female. She popped up about fifteen years ago. Everyone was under orders that she would not be shot. She bred and produced several litters, and no black squirrels were shot for a decade. We selected our gray squirrels to be black, and now they make up a third of the population.

     Lewis and Clark were coming down the Ohio from Pittsburgh with their Newfoundland dog named Seaman. Not far from Wheeling, they saw a bunch of squirrels swimming from the Ohio/Northwest Territory Bank to the Virginia/West Virginia bank. They sent the dog to fetch the squirrels from the water, and he caught a bunch. Most of these were black in color.

     It is thought that the black ones were far better at hiding in dense forests, which existed before European settlement. When the forests were cleared, the black ones made better food for the hawks, and the black ones became more rare. In Canada, however, the number of black ones has never dropped. The black ones can absorb more heat.

     
     

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