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Mystery Solved: Scientists Have Figured Out Why Some Squirrels Are Black
mental floss.com ^ | August 15, 2019 | Jake Rossen

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 ...


TOPICS: Outdoors; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: dna; squirrels
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To: Daffynition

We have a few white squirrels around here. Had some black ones a few years back but they disappeared. Saw them playing near the road and think they got squashed.


41 posted on 08/17/2019 11:45:12 AM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: InterceptPoint

I wonder how much this research cost us?


42 posted on 08/17/2019 11:49:24 AM PDT by Ed Condon (subliminal messages here in invisible ink)
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To: Daffynition

Says the black squirrel at the Gates of Heaven:

“Just one question. Is I a grey squirrel with black pigmentation,

Or is I a black squirrel?”

SAITH THE LORD:

“You are a Black Squirrel.”


43 posted on 08/17/2019 11:53:45 AM PDT by golux
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To: Daffynition

There are both black and gray squirrels out here-the gray ones are the more common and hang out in trees. The black ones are a little smaller and live among the scrub, small caves and rocks on limestone cliffs around rivers and lakes, and they are called rock squirrels-the black ones don’t do a lot of tree climbing, and the gray ones don’t hang out on cliffs-I can see where the black squirrels would be uncommon in a city, or any other place without cliffs-it isn’t their preferred habitat...


44 posted on 08/17/2019 12:02:30 PM PDT by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys-you've got to draw a hard line"...)
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To: Daffynition

Aw, Nuts!


45 posted on 08/17/2019 12:03:45 PM PDT by VRW Conspirator (Enforce the Law. Build the Wall. Deport them All.)
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To: EEGator

orange squirrels WITH purple polka dots GOOD, however


46 posted on 08/17/2019 12:08:15 PM PDT by faithhopecharity ( “Politicians are not born; they are excreted.” Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
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To: Daffynition
"In North America, black squirrels are uncommon, with one estimate putting them at a rate of one in every 10,000 squirrels."

The authors certainly haven't been to SE Michigan. We have thousands of black squirrels. I see them most every day. They've been here quite a while, too. I remember telling my young daughter (now 40) bedtime stories about black squirrels.

47 posted on 08/17/2019 12:38:34 PM PDT by norwaypinesavage (Calm down and enjoy the ride, great things are happening for our country)
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To: Daffynition
In North America, black squirrels are uncommon

They obviously have never been to S.E. Michigan.........

48 posted on 08/17/2019 12:40:32 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (I'm in the cleaning business.......I launder money)
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To: Daffynition

Because they’re getting state aid?


49 posted on 08/17/2019 1:07:04 PM PDT by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to says)
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To: Daffynition

squirrels of privilege
https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=UZaVzzaWLMQ


50 posted on 08/17/2019 1:17:41 PM PDT by Rock N Jones (1935)
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To: Daffynition

There was a red squirrel (we don’t have red ones) who had man problems. He’d go from laying sprawled out on the top of a metal swing set. Then he’d sprawl on the cooler stair handrail - eww. He was around a couple years. Died of old age or whatever was wrong with his, uh, nuts.


51 posted on 08/17/2019 2:09:22 PM PDT by bgill
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To: Daffynition

We feed the birds and squirrels by our house in WI and there are several black squirrels that hang around. They didn’t show up here until a few years ago, but I did see one in town about thirty years ago. At the time it was remarkable.


52 posted on 08/17/2019 2:30:59 PM PDT by MRadtke (Light a candle or curse the darkness?)
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To: Daffynition
"Really! I am 1/1024th fox squirrel"


53 posted on 08/17/2019 2:51:30 PM PDT by LeoTDB69
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To: Daffynition

In our little area, we have the dominant grays, their smaller cousins the red fox, and the browns hated by other squirrels and home owners.

The browns travel via the tv/internet thick cables. Once they hit the road or ground the other squirrels go anti-fa against them and even the crows go after them.

About every ten years, we get a black pair. They are very aggressive and territorial. They disappear in 3-4 months.


54 posted on 08/17/2019 3:03:52 PM PDT by Grampa Dave ( Here's the Formula: Hatred + Government + Disarmed Civilians = Genocide !)
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To: Cloverfarm

Did they vote for Buttgeig?


55 posted on 08/17/2019 3:11:14 PM PDT by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: Daffynition
There are a lot of black squirrels along the trail that runs along the Potomac near Reagan National Airport. And there are a bunch of white squirrels that live around the reflecting pool on the national mall.

The ones around my yard are golden brown but I saw a dark chocolate colored one recently. So there goes the neighborhood!

56 posted on 08/17/2019 3:40:44 PM PDT by FalloutShelterGirl (Cool! I found my original screen name!)
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To: Daffynition

Well, I’m not reading the article, but years ago in NYC we said that some of the squirrels were black because they got resinated from the pot we were smoking!


57 posted on 08/17/2019 3:58:34 PM PDT by jocon307
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To: Daffynition

We have tons of black squirrels in my neighborhood here in Sunnyvale, CA.


58 posted on 08/17/2019 4:18:50 PM PDT by Yossarian
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To: Daffynition

Here in northern Michigan they are everywhere. It is unusual here to see a gray squirrel.


59 posted on 08/17/2019 4:45:16 PM PDT by MarMema (breeding tauntauns in northern Michigan - soon to be for sale!)
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To: Daffynition

Fake research. Black squirrels are really gray squirrels. Black is a recessive gene. White squirrels are also gray squirrels. Where I travel for work there are quite a few black squirrels, and now and then a white squirrel. There is a kind of brownish squirrel that is probably a cross between a gray and a red squirrel.


60 posted on 08/17/2019 4:48:15 PM PDT by Revolutionary ("Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition!")
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