Subject: Michigan squirrels
Date: Mar 13 15:46:53 2000
From: Kraig,Eric - kraige at oclc.org



I agree with what several other Tweets have said, that Nick was seeing Fox
Squirrels rather than Eastern Grays - the foxes are bigger, with more buff
underneath. The Eastern Gray Squirrels back there come in two color morphs,
gray and black, with frequencies varying in different locations. I remember
in East Lansing, MI, the proportion seemed about 50-50. And as Jacki
mentioned, across the river(s) in Windsor or Sarnia, nearly all are black.
I've never seen a black Eastern Gray in our introduced populations out here,
but I think that there may be some up in B.C.?

I remember visiting the town of Olney, IL back in the sixties, where most of
the "gray" squirrels were pure white. I've heard that they're gradually
reverting to gray there, though. Too bad.

Eric Kraig
Olympia, WA
mailto:kraige at oclc.org