Posted on 05/28/2021 5:35:15 AM PDT by Red Badger
Wildlife officials in Colorado shared photos of a rare piebald squirrel spotted in a tree near Denver.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife Northeast Region said in a Twitter post that Jerry Baines spotted the unusually-colored squirrel west of Denver and snapped photos.
The piebald squirrel has normal brown and gray fur on its tail and underside, but white fur on its head and back.
"That is a genetic mutation causing varying amounts of white hair. Some can be almost pure white while others carry just patches of white," the department tweeted.
Actually here in GA I have seen pure white and pure black squirrels a few times.
This squirrel is marked exactly like a Siamese cat, with color at its extremities. The gene causing Siamese cat markings is activated by temperature and is expressed where the body temp is a bit lower. I wonder if the squirrel has a mutant of the normal pigmentation gene which operates the same way.
Such an interesting looking creature. In a park in front of City Hall in New York there was a black squirrel with green eyes. It was highly unusual as well.
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