White squirrels

[earlene]

Here is a photo collage of pictures I have taken of our native squirrels. I can't find a digital copy of the first picture I took in 2005 when we first moved here. It was really cool with a white squirrel feeding upside down on a sunflower-shaped feeder I used to have. These pictures I took about 4 years ago.

We live in a small farming community where my husband grew up. I had never seen white squirrels before moving here, although they do exist in nature. There just weren't any where I grew up in California and I had not run across them in my travels before that.

Oh, yes, there is a black squirrel in the collage. I included it for contrast. I liked the reddish shimmer in his tail, which is really a trick of lighting and the background colors behind him.

 

[dixiedragon]

What neat pictures! From the red eyes, that is some sort of albino squirrel, vs a squirrel with a white coat in the winter.

makes me think of this:
http://senecawhitedeer.org/

 

[dibbles]

Very cool. I love seeing the one we have living here.

 

[mommycarlson]

Earlene, I live in Eastern Iowa, on the Mississippi River. Very rare for us to see a black squirrel around here and I have never seen a white one, very cool pictures!

 

[GeezLouise]

In the San Juan Islands of Washington, on Lummi, there are spotted deer. Kind of like a pinto-colored horse. Thanks for sharing the squirrels, very cool and fun. It hadn't really occurred to me they could be white also.

 

[Scooter]

These photos are great! Thanks for sharing.

Scooter

 

[snappyllama]

Great photos, thanks for posting them. I've never seen white squirrels before. However, there is supposed to be a breeding population of white skunks in my town. I'm keeping my eyes out for them!

 

[Susie]

I have seen both albino fox squirrels and solid black fox squirrels in central Louisiana. We had them both in our pecan and fig trees. Knowing the family that originally owned the land, I have a strong suspicion that both were introduced into our breeding population intentionally. My dad, however, did his best to reduce that population every year from the beginning of July (when the figs got ripe) to the end of December (when the pecans stopped).

 

[earlene]

They actually are not albino squirrels. They are naturally white. Although the eyes look a bit reddish in the photo it is just a trick of light. And although they seem somewhat rare, there are many towns near and far that have white squirrel populations.

I was surprised when a friend of mine from Baton Rouge visited and raved over the black squirrels because she had never seen one before. I figured they were quite common, but she was thrilled.

Thank you. Getting good pictures of squirrels isn't too hard. They don't mind if I get close. But the rabbits! Now that's another story. They are as skiddish as can be. I can never get close enough to get a really good picture.

 

[Susie]

Ours were definitely albinos. Red eyes you could see from across the street.