OT---Do you have any like this?

JerryS · Mar 9, 2012

I first noticed this guy on my place about six months ago, and he obviously calls my woods home. I have hundreds of red fox squirrels and grey cat squirrels, but Smokey here is the only one of his hue I've ever seen. Lots of little Smokeys may start showing up later in the spring----there goes the neighborhood---but so far he's the only one. They may be common as cockroaches where you live, but he's an oddity to me.

Ken L · Mar 9, 2012

In New London Wi, that's about all you see.

VicS · Mar 9, 2012

I have never seen one before. We have Fox and Grey Squirrels. Southern Il.

dgasper · Mar 9, 2012

Olney, Illinois is famous for its white squirrels.

RayP(MI) · Mar 9, 2012

I've been told they're just another color phase of the common squirrel you see all over. Have also been told that a guy named Kellogg imported a bunch of them to his estate near Battle Creek from Europe, and they've been spreading ever since. In the early '70s, I used to see them down there. Now live about 70 miles north of there, and seems that they're showing closer to here all the time.... Others have told me they are common in communities throughout the midwest.

omahagreg · Mar 9, 2012

Council Bluffs Iowa has lots of them! I hear they are protected by law, not sure how that works, guess you are not supposed to disturb them! LOL

bobs old iron · Mar 9, 2012

catch them and send them to the white-house and let them protect and feed them...their is enough of them running the place anyway,,,lol

robgIN · Mar 9, 2012

here they are very common, and lots of grey ones too. Haven't seen a little red one in years though you still see traces of their genes, a black one with a red tail or a hint of red in the coat. I think the red ones got ran out by the grey and black ones. I am in a little town south of Ft Wayne and we have tons of squirrels here. Not far from here in Ohio there is a small town with white squirrels, don't remember if it's Coldwater or not but its near there.They are entertaining to watch.

Anonymous-0 · Mar 9, 2012

Somewhere, sometime, I heard Mrs. John Deere imported them from England. I know they are common around Quad Cities Il./Ia.

DownSouth · Mar 9, 2012

Seems I recall seeing a whole bunch of those on TV several years back after a bad storm. I think they were living in a large house called the Superdome temorarilly.

Janicholson · Mar 9, 2012

Olney Illinois has white squirrels Near my mom's birth place. Jim

Jeff B. · Mar 9, 2012

It"s typical for birds especially, and other critters to have some geographical color variations depending on what part of the country they occur in. Maybe it depends on their diet or the ability to blend in with the habitat they live in. I doubt that your friend is anything rare, just a local color variation, and then perhaps a gene throw that makes him a little darker than the rest.

JerryS · Mar 9, 2012

He's a LOT darker than any others. In fact, he stands out in his environment so much that I've been amazed that he's not already an owl or hawk pellet.

NW Ohio Tim · Mar 9, 2012

If that is a true black squirrel, you better put a bullet in him quick. They are agressive & territorial and will run off or kill all the gray & red squirrels in the area. I can show you a dozen towns in this area where they have taken over.

Tim

RalphWD45 · Mar 10, 2012

Washington state protects it's squirrls. They call them Douglas squirrls, and they look like any grey from Ill. Taste about the same also! There are another group of squirrls, that has held up the building of a cross base highyay, between fort lewis and McChord field, for several years now. Supposed to be rare. I'll bet they taste good too!I sure do miss my fall squirrl hunting, along the Ill river.

MarkB_MI · Mar 10, 2012

Although we don't have any black squirrels around our place, they're very common in the nearby suburbs of Detroit. The black squirrel is just a variety of the common Eastern Gray squirrel. For unknown reasons, they do well in the city but not in rural areas.
Black squirrel

Fergienewbee · Mar 10, 2012

We have lots of these in several different shades/colors from black to redish brown. Black squirrels are just a color phase of gray squirrels. We also have fox squirrels.

Larry

wilder11354 · Mar 10, 2012

common in north eastern pennsylvania. especially down by the delaware river bottom lands.

fixerupper · Mar 10, 2012

I've seen them in the Quad Cities area too. My sis lives in Bettendorf and the first time I ever saw one was when I was visiting her. We don't have them here in NW IA. Jim

Brian G. NY · Mar 10, 2012

I don't know where you live, but my M.I.L. who lives in Winsted, CT has 3 black squirrels coming to her feeder, along with about 8 or 9 regular grey squirrels.
We saw the first black one 6 or 7 years ago and their population keeps growing.
I keep telling her, I'm going to "pop" off a few of her pets for a nice stew 'cause she feeds 'em corn and sunflower seeds and they are fattern heck!
About 20 years ago we had 2 different farms around here with black woodchucks and for a few years at about the same time we had an albino woodchuck on my wife's grandpa's farm. We used to look at "whitey" thru the bi-noculars and he was pure white except where his belly was a little brown from crawling in and out of his hole.

JOHNNYfromMI · Mar 10, 2012

Northern Michigan has lots of the black ones. also grey, fox and red. Between the cat, dog, trappin, and shooting we keep the numbers down around the house

Paul Searl · Mar 10, 2012

The story I always heard was that a general in command of Arsenal Island had them imported. They are highly territorial and run off any other squirrel and have spent the last few decades spreading out from the island. I know the reds disappeared not long after the blacks started moving around us, then they got cleaned out and the reds came back. I know a lot of folks shoot em on sight, but I think council bluffs iowa has em as a mascot.

Anonymous-0 · Mar 12, 2012

A bunch of those showed up in my folk's woods a couple years ago. After that we did not see anymore gray squirrels. What goes around comes around. Before that the gray squirrels had pushed out the red squirrels.

OT---Do you have any like this?

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