When a deer hunt turns into a squirrel
Small Game
Anyone ever seen a melanistic grey? I've seen thousands of greys in my life, never a black one. Watched him all morning yesterday and when he got inside of 25 yards I couldn't help myself. Passthrough with a judo point.
Michigan is full of black squirrels
Seeing More And more Of Them After decades Of oppression they are making a comeback in the woods
That will make a cool mount
Very pretty animal. At first, I thought it was a pole cat. :) I saw one in TX many years ago near Medina Lake that was brown, black, and grey.
Here in Southern Ontario the dominate colour phase is black
Nice!!! Never seen one in person but, I’d do the same thing if I did.
Good shot- I see about 1 a year so still pretty rare where I hunt whitetail in Kansas
I work outside, in towns and cities all over the Midwest. I see tons of squirrels, both fox and greys. I see all kinds of color variations of both species. Everything from vibrant orange, to yellow, white, black, etc. Also have seen normal colored ones with black bellies, black markings on just their faces, ones with white tails. In some regions the variations are very common, and in some areas, it seems to be very rare. In SW Iowa, totally black fox squirrels are extremely common, yet where I live in the central part of the state, I’ve yet to see one. Supposedly, squirrels are one of the most common mammals to show varying melanistic traits. I remember as a kid back in the 70s, I killed one with a black belly and black features on its face. I was like a kid at Christmas! I occasionally see one with similar features while I’m deer hunting. They’re still pretty rare, and cool to see. I’ve come close to killing one with my bow a couple of times, but haven’t as of yet. I definitely would like to, so I totally get your excitement. Congrats on a unique trophy!
The black squirrel is a melanic variant of the gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). We found 3 coat color variants in the gray squirrel: the wild-type gray, a jet-black, and a brown–black phenotype. These 3 morphs are due to varying distributions of eumelanin and phaeomelanin pigment in hairs. The melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) plays a central role in regulating eumelanin and phaeomelanin production. We sequenced the MC1R gene for all 3 coat color phenotypes and found a 24 base-pair deletion. The gray phenotype was homozygous for the wild-type allele E+, the jet-black phenotype was homozygous for the MC1R-?24 allele EB, and the brown–black phenotype was heterozygous for the E+ and EB alleles. We conclude that melanism in gray squirrels is associated with the MC1R-?24 EB allele at amino acid positions 87–94 and that this allele is incompletely dominant to the wild-type allele. We predict that the MC1R-?24 EB allele encodes a constitutively active or hyperactive receptor.
I had two melanistic fox squirrels mounted once. While they were at the taxi, he passed away. Someone else finished the job and they looked like wood rats. I passed……
There used to be a strain of albino cat squirrels in a neighboring town, but I never see them anymore. Black fox squirrels used to not be too uncommon, but I hardly ever see one anymore.
Why are there white squirrels?
For some odd reason, eastern grey squirrels in the US do have a gene that will make their coats white. It’s somewhat rare to see a white squirrel, though, because white squirrels are likely highly selected against. In other words, predators to squirrels such as hawks really like it when their prey is highlighted white!
There are a few towns in the US, though, that have very high numbers of white squirrels. This could be for a few reasons. First, predators in towns tend to be low. This cancels out the negative selection against the white morph. Sometimes in towns, a few neighbors will also select against the normal coloration of eastern grey squirrel. Yes, that happens. After a few generations, all you get are whites, and they can spread to the rest of the town! Fascinating!
The Big 5 White Squirrel Towns
Marionville, MO (read) Brevard, NC Olney, Il Kenton, TN Exeter, Ontario Canada (web) Other Places with lots of reports
Washington DC area Bowling Green, KY Minneapolis, MN Downtown Boston
White one in Columbus OH this summer.
That didn't go over my head, Bou. lol
Had this one in my yard a while back. Pretty cool!!
NE Ohio is full of melanistic black color phased eastern gray squirrels, most are jet black but some are lighter shades in between...
Pix I took of squirrels on my properties...
One winter I counted 22 at my feeder, most were blacks and a few gray and fox squirrels...
I've seen black, white, Grey, and red in the same day. The place where Ryan golfed in the state tournament had a bunch of white squirrels.
I think I counted 15 squirrels before I took this photo at my feeder...
A little history of the melanistic gray squirrel in NE Ohio:
"Black morphs were once present in Ohio, although the color morph was extirpated from the state by 1930. However, an initiative to reintroduce the black morphs into the squirrel population was undertaken in 1961 by Kent State University, based in Portage County. The university, in coordination from the Canadian and U.S. governments, released ten black squirrels from London, Ontario onto its campus grounds in an effort to reintroduce the black morphs into the area. By 1964, the Record-Courier reported the number of black squirrel increased to 150. Black morphs of the eastern gray squirrels have since expanded through northeastern Ohio."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_squirrel
Coming from NC where I have never seen a black squirrel. I went to Colorado and the woods I was in had nothing but black squirrels. Neat looking animal. I am so happy our government decided to "rescue" Peanut.
I shot a black one in Colorado with a .22 Co2 pistol when I was a kid and there is a town in KS that reportedly has a population of them.
