melinistic gray squirrel

Just got this guy today. We don't have many around here.

Cool!

The vast majority of Greys here are jet black. The rest are regulation colored, or anything in between! I still haven't mounted that piebald one I shot 5+ (?) years ago. I'll show a photo of it when I do.

Crager, are most of yours regulation grey with a white belly?

99.999999999%

I caught the .0000000001 black one today. No fox squirrel anywhere near here too. Just normal grays , reds and flying.
Ive seen other areas , not near here that have pockets of black ones or even pockets of albino.

This is the first melinistic one I've seen here. I've only seen 1 luecistic one here too. Very rare to see one here.

C'mon up tp my place. You can catch as many of the black ones you want. True Grays have gotten to be a minority around here. We've even had a couple of the blond ones this year.

Moosetrot

Very common here in Iowa along the Mississippi river where I live.

When I lived in Dayton, Ohio, my neighborhood had large numbers of albino, grey squirrels. Once I could see 14, at one time, while walking down the bike path. The albinos really stick out, except in the snow.

When I lived in Massilon, Ohio, in 1992, about 33% of the gray squirrels were melanistic.

Keith

40 years ago we had many white, gray squirrels in the town near where I live. I suppose some were albino but I don’t know. Now, 40 years later, there are no white squirrels but many, many black, grey squirrels.

To clarify , I have caught at least 1000 gray squirrels here doing ADC work. I'm kinda jealous of those of you that have other types , melinistic, albino, luecistic. So it is super rare to find one here. This is the first melinistic one I have seen , let alone trapped and caught in my area. I guess my area has an odd or shall we say normal genetic makeup of almost no deviant DNA to cause off-color offspring. Kinda more pure blooded or something.

J.Morse , get that piebald one mounted or at least post a pic of it's pelt , I would die for one of those.



I've shared some of my pics with friends who are local. They were just amazed. Most had never seen such a thing. They are unaware that squirrels (or other animals) can have these different color alterations by breakdown of their pigmentation genomes. I had a couple people who were so perplexed they did not recognize the animal and asked if it was a species like fisher or maybe weasel because they never knew that a black (melinistic) squirrel existed.

Which NY border are you on (from your profile)?

I have a camp on the NY/PA border and black gray squirrels are common there.

Never had any around my place in southeast PA (lived here since 89) until four years ago when I saw one while deer hunting. In four years they have multiplied to the point that about 25% are black.

In Western NC white squirrels are rather common. One town has a white squirrel festival.

CT/NY border


I always thought that was cool. My mom retired to the Hendersonville area (Etowah) before she passed. Nice area.
Squirrel festival was in Brevard NC ? Heard they had a pocket of them there.

Yes Brevard is known for their white squirrels. I live in Asheville now, about 20 miles north. I have seen a white one here as well.

I went to a gun show In Asheville one year when I was visiting my mom , some kind of civic center there. I picked up an 8lb keg of Winchester powder there could not beat the price. Had to smuggle it into mom's house and hide it during my stay , didn't want to leave it in the car. She would have flipped out if she knew I had it....lol

The Biltmore getting ready to put on their annual Christmas show there or has covid ruined that too ?

Never seen a melanistic one here. Have seen one white one. The fox squirrels here are about half full black or black with white nose the rest are mostly grey with or without black mask and red trim.

NW PA has many melanistic squirrels

We don’t have that many fox squirrels but at least in my neck of the woods the greys have reddish bellies with red sprinkled throughout

we have them all blacks grays whites , fox , mix ,

We're about 50/50 black and grey

About the same

Me thinks Crager must really be ashamed to live in Connecticut!

As far as the squirrels we only have the Gray with white bellies.

Once saw a melanistic Crow....