Comments on: 2006’s Top Ten White & Black Squirrels’ Hot Spots

By: fhelmjr

fhelmjr — Fri, 29 May 2009 09:30:03 +0000

Is a black squirrel with a solid white tail rare?

By: sdiver68

sdiver68 — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:57:20 +0000

My grandparents and parent live in Olney, Illinois. As such, I’ve seen lots of white squirrels.

However, at the Tradition Club on Pawleys Island, SC we saw all kinds of multi-colored squirrels a couple of days ago. I forgot to ever take any photos as we were there for the golf. These were larger squirrels with many different varieties of markings from salt-pepper to grey to brown to jet black to white. One animal might have 3-4 different unique patches. If you want photos it would be easy…these squirrels were not afraid to stand just a few feet from club-wielding humans and there are lots of them to be found…at least in mid-April.

At Oyster Bay Golf Club in Sunset Beach, NC we saw a few jet black squirrel with snow white nose and ear tips only. I snapped a picture on my cell phone which I will attempt to download and blow-up.

By: babesbarn

babesbarn — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:13:17 +0000

I stopped short in my tracks when I saw a “white squirrel” yesterday in Beachwood NJ. I could not believe my eyes. Then I recalled that about fifteen years ago in that same spot I saw a white squirrel too and looked it up at the local library. I wonder how long they live and if this is a relative of the first one.

He was so pure white and a “jolly” spotting. I thought him to be good luck for me.

By: josephp

josephp — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:10:11 +0000

There was a single white squirrel on the East Carolina campus in Greenville, NC, I saw it numerous times near the library (incidentally, one of the most crowded flyways for a large predator, not that it would stop one though)

By: PNWJaeger

PNWJaeger — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:16:50 +0000

I reside in Bellingham Washington (Whatcom County) & we seem to be over run by black squirrels. They first really started showing up about 7 or 8 years ago. Now it seems like a common occurrence.
I see them almost daily around the house (much to my collie’s chagrin).
One that I’ve seen only once or twice was unusual however in that the tip of its tail was white, resembling a fox’s tail. Is this common, or perhaps some sort of genetic throwback to its white counterpart?
I’ve never seen white squirrels around here by the way.

By: Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 14:01:26 +0000

No, of course, not.

Black and white squirrels are not cryptids.

This entire thread began as an exercise in people identifying and seeing if they could photograph a known and easy-to-identify population of animals that remain elusive to many.

In others, skeptics say that with so many cellphone cameras the number of Bigfoot photos should be increasing. But the challenge was, hey, how easy is it to even find and photograph b & w squirrels.

Thus the thread developed about where they are and how easy are they to see.

By: PLeary

PLeary — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 08:11:42 +0000

Black squirrels are considered a cryptid?

Dear Loren,

Upon my first lengthy purview of your great and fascinating Web site, I came across the White and Black squirrel top 10 article. I admit I am shocked that the black squirrel is a cryptid.

In 2002, my wife, toddler daughter and I traded our Florida home for 3 months with a couple from Vancouver, BC, specifically in a small community on the enclave of Horseshow Bay. The ONLY squirrels — and they were plentiful — we ever saw there were jet black. Being a native East Coaster I was only familiar with the bold grey squirrels. I had never seen a black squirrel, nor had my wife. These were striking and a bit furrier than their eastern cousins (though it was winter). The guys also seemed a tad more reticent than the grey squirrels. We assumed these black squirrels were de rigour all over Vancouver as they were ever present in the many forests and parks we visited over the three months.

Interestingly, now I live in Mountain View, CA (roughly between San Francisco and San Jose) and just Wednesday I saw my first U.S. black squirrel in a tree behind my office. My first thought was pleasant surprise since I regard the blacks as novel and interesting (at least compared to the grey squirrels I grew up with). If you are interested in a photo, I am sure I can capture one on camera since the little habitat behind my office is just a patch of trees squeezed between light industrial/warehousing buildings and that squirrel may call that home.

By: dmirro

dmirro — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 19:24:21 +0000

Thank you for the list–it validates what I saw last week, up here in the borderlands between the USA and Canada. I was driving through Sumas when I saw a black squirrel on someone’s front lawn. Now that I know they are here, I’ll try to get a photo to send in, preferably of one standing in front of a “Welcome to Sumas” sign.

So now I have yet another critter to keep an eye out for, in addition to the Bald Eagles, Gyrfalcons and Trumpeter Swans…oh yes, and Sasquatch…I love Whatcom County!

By: jdejon1

jdejon1 — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 17:15:56 +0000

I recently raised a baby white squirrel myself.

Here is his photo album if you want to see any pictures of him. His name is Wiki, he’s cute as heck.

He’s off at a wild-life rehab center in Covington, LA now where he can live with the other squirrels. But for the first two months of his life, I was his father.

He is in fact an albino squirrel.

By: jstar

jstar — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 19:03:07 +0000

I used to live in London, ON (Black squirrels - #4). Its interesting that Exeter, ON (White squirrels - #4) is only about a 30-40 min walk from there. You might think the populations would breed each other out.