When I lived in NY as a kid, my favorite wild critters were black squirrels. They were beautiful and about 50% of the squirrel population--the rest were grey. A friend who lives in Oshkosh, WI said they had them there. But I never saw one around here until today. Even my challenged daughter was thrilled to see it. There are a few mutations but not pure black, here. Until today. Kinda like a furry tailed mink. Natural GMO.
I had never even heard of a black squirrel, so I had to look it up and find pictures, @Mary Stetler . They are definitely both unique and beautiful ! When I lived in north Idaho, we only found squirrels deep into the forests; not like here in Alabama where they live on your doorstep and beg for treats. When we went fishing and camping back when I was growing up, we often saw chipmunks, and they were fairly friendly and would come up for bits of bread, but I do not remember seeing squirrels then either. Here is a picture I found online of a black squirrel. In case other people have never seen one either, and the chipmunk picture is one my son took of the chipmunks on his back deck.
Thank you! I think chipmunks are very cute. But I still don't like them ever since they started filling my riding boots with seeds from feed bags. We have many varieties of squirrels here.
When I was on the NIH campus in Bethesda, MD, I would always see lots of them. They seemed to far outnumber the grey squirrels in that area. I have no idea if they’re common throughout Bethesda or if it’s just the NIH main campus area.
The Kent State University campus is famous for those black squirrels. There is even a black squirrel day celebration every year. "Black squirrels were brought to Kent State University from Ontario, Canada, in 1961 by Larry Wooddell, who was the grounds superintendent, and “Biff” Staples, a retired Davey Tree employee. They called the mission “Operation Black Squirrel”."
We have had problems with the squirrels eating the berries and preaches before they get ripe, and I think they might even eat the figs, too. We see lots of little green figs on the tree, but not very many ripe ones. Someone posted a video on Facebook of a squirrel eating the blossoms from their Rose of Sharon bush. I had no idea that squirrels liked those, but I guess I am not surprised. I have read about making tea from the blossoms, since they are actually a variety of hibiscus, but I have never tried doing that. So, another thing that we have to try and keep the squirrels out of. Here is a screenshot from the video and the little squirrel happily munching the flower buds.
Yes they love figs. My next door neighbor had a fig tree. Just before the figs got ripe a bunch of squirrels would attack her tree and strip it of figs all in one day.
Most of the squirrels we have here are the Grey type, However I have seen an occasional black squirrel in the neighborhood. A few years ago I was losing ripe tomatoes, they were pulled off the plant. I caught the culprit it was Gray squirrel I have on my property, I remember taking a photo of a Gray squirrel climbing a fence with a tomatoes in its mouth.
We have a bunch of the gray squirrels, too. There is one little fatty who has an entirely white chest and tummy. He runs along the top of our fence and eats the flowers off of lilies.
I have never seen a black squirrel. We used to camp at a state park on Lake Michigan when I was a kid, and I recall the infestation of chipmunks. Although they are native to places I have lived, I've never seen any other than that spot in Michigan.