Black Squirrel, Brown Tail
Friday, 16 April 2010
Ark In Space reader Kathleen Connell of East Moline Illinois recently snapped this little guy a black squirrel – with a brown tail.
Out of the squirrel population of the United States and Canada perhaps only one in ten thousand is black. However, this is not a separate species in itself. It is in fact a sub-group of the grey squirrel and, little by little their numbers are growing. In fact in some areas they outnumber the greys. However, this black coloring is not a recent trend among the squirrel community – research indicates that in the days before the European settlement of the America the black squirrel was probably much more numerous than the grey.
The question is – how did it get like this? Does anyone know? It seems to be a combination of both colour. Answers in the comment section please!
Out of the squirrel population of the United States and Canada perhaps only one in ten thousand is black. However, this is not a separate species in itself. It is in fact a sub-group of the grey squirrel and, little by little their numbers are growing. In fact in some areas they outnumber the greys. However, this black coloring is not a recent trend among the squirrel community – research indicates that in the days before the European settlement of the America the black squirrel was probably much more numerous than the grey.
The question is – how did it get like this? Does anyone know? It seems to be a combination of both colour. Answers in the comment section please!
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