Karen Posted January 20, 2009 Report Share Posted January 20, 2009 I've just been reading this on the BBC web site. I've never seen a black squirrel, are they really that common? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celeste Posted January 20, 2009 Report Share Posted January 20, 2009 I've never seen or even heard of black Squirrels, makes you wonder what chance the poor old Red has I'm a bit puzzled why Ms Thomas says that big changes like a genetic mutation don't happen in nature, it does, it's called "founder effect" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hertsgreys Posted January 21, 2009 Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 loads and loads of black squirrels here in Stevenage . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sekhmut Posted January 25, 2009 Report Share Posted January 25, 2009 I've seen one in the woods where I walk Zeus. It looked nothing like the pic the BBC used though, it was jet black all over and seemed a bit smaller than the greys I usually see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackmagic Posted January 27, 2009 Report Share Posted January 27, 2009 When we were staying in America we saw lots of black sqirrels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen Posted January 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 Just to add to the mix, my mum spotted this squirrel in Dorking last week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sproggie14 Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 I'm not convinced this is a separate species. You can get black grey squirrels as a natural colour fluctuation. The one in your pic Karen is an albino grey squirrel, I believe the black ones are called melanistic. Albino's are reasonably common although they don't always live long as they're easy for predators to see and have poor eyesight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel155 Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 Replace them all with happy little green squirrels I say. The world cannot have too many of them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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