Black Squirrel

Showed up below our feeder today. First time we've seen it here. She snapped a pic. Freak of nature? Opposite of an albino?

 

Moderating can you correct my typo in the title please. I cant edit that part. Thanks in advance.

 

Black squirrels are everywhere around here...the most common color these days...seems the coloring is dominant, so once it come to your area, you'll have mostly blacks after a few years.
Black squirrel - Wikipedia

 

East side of Columbus Ohio (Whitehall) has a large black and albino squirrel population. Southeast not so much.

 

Thats odd. Only grays around here or a slight variation.

 

I had never seen a black squirrel till I went to Canada back in 2005 or so. I was absolutely amazed, had no idea there was a such thing. Yeah doesn't take much to amaze me sometimes.

So, sounds like if I ever see a black squirrel around here, it needs to go in the pot.....

 

Thanks Pete!

 

Black fox squirrels were all over SC. The neatest thing I found was a nest of black and white southern flying squirrels in Hanahan, South Carolina. It was illegal to sell them by then so I just reported it to the state biologist. Rudy Manke I believe was his name. Now he is up here in Montana.

 

I lost a bet once over a 13 lined ground squirrel. Yea , they are here in Michigan .

 

Yup , seen them here.
Not often but they are around. Certainly, no lack of grey ones.

 

Around me they're almost all black . 25 yrs ago it was rare to see a black squirrel unless you were on the University campus ( I'm about 3 miles away from campus). They're so common on campus there's a Black Squirrel Festival.

 

We only have gray squirrels here. The wildlife dept has put out posters inquiring about sighting of fox squirrels, I guess we're in thenhistoric range and maybe they're moving back in somewhere.

I always chalked black squirrels up to just being a color version of a gray? They're not a separate species are they?

Edit...ah, Ol' Google says it's a genetic color thing, and can happen in several species including the gray and fox.

 

As I understand, black squirrels are a grey squirrel. Like a dog breed that comes in different colors.

 

My wife killed 3 of them this summer trying to set up camp in the back yard.

 

Just read the wiki link above. Lol. Mutants.

 

My son went to UW lacrosse and they are everywhere. On campus they are almost domesticated.
Also In lacrosse it's illegal to "worry a squirrel" so don't torment or chase them!
I believe WeldrDave has a relative from around there so maybe he can elaborate.