Sorta white squirrels

[CathyA]

In the 32 years we've lived out here, we've never seen this before.
There's about 3 little ones, with varying amounts of white on them. Someone in a town in our county has a couple white ones this year. They aren't albinos, just white. (normal eyes).
Anyone else ever see these?

Here's one that has mostly a white tail. the other one is mostly white with a brown head.

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f129/Catherine50/IMG_5861_zps472224eb.jpg

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f129/Catherine50/IMG_5854_zpsbdd84ec0.jpg

[bae]

Assuming you don't live far enough north for polar squirrels to have moved in... :-)

http://www.brevardnc.org/whitesquirrelinstitute/

[Alan]

I've never seen a white squirrel, although Google Images shows hundreds of examples. Since my curiosity was piqued, I dug a little further and found this: http://brevardnc.org/what-is-a-white-squirrel/

[sweetana3]

I just saw a very young squirrel in our backyard with a very pale grey tale. His brother had the normal colored tail. Indiana. Never seen this before either.

[CathyA]

Thanks everyone.
A woman on the other side of our county is seeing completely white (not albino) squirrels this year. It's all very strange. One person mentioned that it might be because of all the inbreeding, but I just don't know.
It's all very interesting! And the little guys are so darned cute.

[bae]

We have deer here that are white, either in pronounced patterns or nearly all-white ("piebald" deer). The population of deer here is huge, but the genetic diversity isn't all that great, since the population booms-and-busts on a cycle, and the population is isolated. It is allegedly from a recessive gene that normally hits < 1% of a deer population.

It's pretty adaptive here however, as it makes them much easier to see at night and avoid with your car. It's also sort of neat to be able to recognize easily individual deer by their markings - the same small herd moves through my land each day on a schedule while browsing.

http://www.buckmanager.com/media/images/2007/12/pie-bald_deer_pics_0003.jpg

[ApatheticNoMore]

But the white squirrels are so cute. No white squirrels around here only the brown kind.

[CathyA]

Wow........that's interesting bae.
I've really never seen anything in a different color before these squirrels.

[catherine]

bae, perhaps you remember the black squirrel of Princeton.. it should have an orange tail, but doesn't.

1417

Cathy, thanks for the great squirrel pic! Our backyard squirrels are all a boring grey (but still enough to excite Nessie, our dog)

[Songbird]

I've never seen a white squirrel or deer. How unique!!

[goldensmom]

Nice photos. We've got 'em this year. Two are gray with white tails and one almost all white. They are in the trees in our woods and move to fast to get a photo. First time ever I've ever seen white tail squirrels.

[Float On]

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2668

Marrionville, MO has white squirrels. Its kind of fun to go over there and look for them thought I've only seen them once.

[early morning]

Well, I've never seen a piebald squirrel until Cathy's pics, but there's a park here (in west central Ohio) with a large white squirrel population. Parks dept. says it's a recessive gene trait and that's why it tends to be quite localized. We have black squirrels here too now, down from Michigan. I hope they don't displace our gray or red squirrel population - what if they don't taste the same?? ;);)

[CathyA]

I never knew about the term "piebald". One of my pics that I took looks like the squirrel has blue eyes......but I thought it was just a reflection, but maybe it does have blue eyes.
I wonder why there seems to be such an eruption of them this year? Is it the end of the world? Is it one of them thar plagues? :~)
I think I've been calling my "regular" squirrels gray squirrels, but now I'm thinking they are fox squirrels.