Posted on 08/17/2019 10:39:20 AM PDT by Daffynition
snip...
Like many animals with unusual color schemes, black squirrels are the result of a genetic detour. Researchers at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge University, and the Virginia Museum of Natural History collaborated on a project that tested squirrel DNA. Their findings, which were published in BMC Evolutionary Biology, demonstrated that the black squirrel is the product of interspecies breeding between the common gray squirrel and the fox squirrel. The black squirrel is actually a gray squirrel with a faulty pigment gene carried over from the fox squirrel that turns their fur a darker shade. (Some fox squirrels, which are usually reddish-brown, are also black.)
(Excerpt) Read more at mentalfloss.com ...
This post is a set up. Don’t take the bait!!!!
In a particular large park in Chicago filled with well-fed gray squirrels, there was always at least one black one. They were always a bit more aggressive than the gray ones. (No joke.)
Okay. Now I can go on with my life.
The black squirrels I see are usually in the most run down neighborhoods. If I ever see one in my yard, I will probably put my house up for sale.
On the lower east side of Manhattan...I can’t remember the exact street off Second Avenue...there is a postage stamp [one tree] little bit of green and there are black squirrels inhibiting the exclusive spot. :)
Urban dwellers.
This may be them...
https://www.villagevoice.com/2015/01/16/meet-the-mutant-squirrels-of-city-hall-park/
BSLM
Black Squirrel Lives Matter
Ya didn’t listen to NYAmerican did ya . . . did ya???
Love it...George Shields would have been an outstanding FReeper. He was ahead of his time.
Saw black squirrels in Canada.
[[The black squirrel is actually a gray squirrel with a faulty pigment gene]]
Ummm- that’s Racist! “Faulty pigment gene”? Why not “Superior pigment gene”? or “Equally acceptable but different pigment gene”? or “Not white pigment Gene”? Or or or...
Where’s my safe space?
I remember upon campus daze that we had albino white squirrels, they would take food out of your hand and simply sit on the other end of the bench and eat it.
Hmmmm...There were lots of gray squirrels in Eugene, decades ago. Then some fox squirrels showed up from who knows where. Have to get a report on black squirrels.
Interesting. I grew up in Port Huron, Michigan and the black squirrels have taken over. Honestly, I always though they came from Canada by crossing the Blue Water bridge. Once they’re in a neighborhood, the brown/red/gray squirrels disappear. I’m sure it’s because the aggressive little ebony punks chased them out.
“Ya didn’t listen to NYAmerican did ya . . . did ya???”
No, I never heard of it. What is it?
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