Talk:Black squirrel

Does anyone have any scientific information on black squirrels? email me at tbean02@aol.com I need some for scientific research too. please help and email me at wonghs@rogers.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.114.123.103 (talk) 03:12, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

I heard that black squirrels attacked and killed a dog. Is this true? racooon

Yes. BBC News story. Although I expect such attacks can occur with grey squirrels. AstroMark 10:09, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

I see them all the time in Mounatin View, CA.

Evanston, Illinois

I saw a black squirrel in Evanston, Illinois at the Northwestern University campus. I didn't have a camera with me. --Kalmia 02:24, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

I just saw a black squirrel today in Manteno, IL running aroung amonst the gray squirrels that are common there. I had never seen or even heard of a black squirrel so I looked it up as soon as I got home. 74.139.205.189 23:12, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Black Squirrels in California

There are a lot of black squirrels here in San Jose by the hills. I have one that lives in the tree in my back yard. I saw it just a few minutes ago playing with a squirrel with light fur, so it looks like it has a red stripe. It then went on top of the fence and ate a fruit. They seem to be just like the other squirrels except for color.

Black Squirrels in California (another sighting) June 25th 2007, UCSC, Santa Cruz, California. I just saw my first black squirrel. I am used to the Grey and Red squirrels here. This is a first for me. It was much less timid and had a thin tail, more like the Red than the Grey. I don't know where it is from originally, but it is not from here!

As far as I know they're concentrated at Stanford. Seeing one in Cupertino was what brought me here. —Tamfang 20:02, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

UK Black Squirrel - Woodhurst.

Spotted one in a small village called Woodhurst - near Huntingdon - Cambridgeshire.

Thank you ! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 195.137.80.171 (talk) 10:58, 27 January 2007 (UTC).

Is it really necessary to list all the college campuses where black squirrels can be found? Most of these place listings should be deleted (Haverford and Kent State seem to be the only legitimate noteworthy cases--Haverford because of the mascot, and Kent State because of black squirrel day.)

Black Squirrel sighting in Elysburg, Pa

We just spent the weekend at Knoebles Amusement Park camping and were complete intrigued by a black squirrel...first I've ever seen. He was quite docile and stayed around the campground most of the weekend.

-Jane

Black Squirrel Sighted in Montenegro

Myself and three others in the car clearly saw a Black Squirrel today as it crossed the road in front of us less than 1km from the primary Montenegro border check point into Croatia.

--Dblgiggles 00:11, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Black squirrels in Minnesota

In the past three weeks,I have seen black squirrels in north central Minnesota- near Perham, and again just north of Brainerd. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.17.187.246 (talk) 00:25, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Jefferson City, Missouri

There are a few black squirrels living in the wooded creek area behind my apartment building in eastern Jefferson City. Had never heard of or seen a black squirrel until I moved here in January 2005, saw one right away. This spring I saw 5 at one time (3 adults and 2 smaller ones), hard to see them now with all the leaves. I've tried several times to photograph them but I don't have enough zoom to get a good picture. The greys seem to tolerate them; I've seen them chasing the blacks around but it usually looks like play or mating because the black will get away and wait for them to catch up. They will forage without bothering each other. Greys probably outnumber them in this creek area 5 or 10 to 1.

Rhowser 23:25, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Princeton, NJ

I think the whole "habitat" section of this article is ridiculous. Black squirrels are everywhere; isn't the black coat just a recessive trait in certain populations of gray squirrels? (Like redheads are for humans.) That said, black squirrels are everywhere on the Princeton campus. Growing up around there, you'd hear an urban legend that they were imported from China, used in lab experiments, and then freed. I always thought that sounded cockamamy, but there are hundreds of people in the Princeton area, including my dad, who will say it's true (based on zero evidence). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.189.26.91 (talk) 19:07, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

Interesting how urban legends go. I was on campus twenty years ago, and I'd never heard the China story. I wonder if each generation develops its own legend--China is on our minds now, thus, the squirrels are from China. In the 80s, Princeton was (and I assume still is) very Anglophilic, and one rumor was the squirrels had been imported from Oxford to make Princeton look all the more like the British icon. Another story, which seemed to make more sense, was that black squirrels were a different species of squirrel from grays that thrived only in heavily wooded places (their dark coats better camouflaged them in the shadows), thus their likelihood of living on college campuses, which were generally more tree-filled than the surrounding landscape. I'm surprised that they're supposed to be just darker-coated grays, since their bodies are generally smaller and their tails are less fluffy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.105.107.85 (talk) 17:40, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

I like the theory of generations reinventing their urban myths, but I got my China story at the same time you got your Oxford story--I was growing up in Princeton in the 70s and 80s. Maybe it's a townie/college thing!

Brooklyn, NY

There are black squirrels in Brooklyn, too. But that's because there are black squirrels all over the place. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.189.26.91 (talk) 19:18, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

here, there, everywhere

Okay, we get the point that black squirrels are known in many places. Is there any good reason to have a list of such places? I'm going to remove them, and mark the article as a stub (if it isn't already so marked). If some populations of black squirrels are particularly notable, let's discuss them. —Tamfang 06:54, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Merger proposal

Since this article is a stub and there is clearly nothing remarkably different between a black squirrel and grey squirrel (aside from the colour of fur) I suggest merging the articles. AstroMark 10:56, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

I agree wholeheartedly. Doodle-doo Ħ 16:04, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

I disagree, just this morning while deer hunting, I observed Fox Squirrels, Eastern Gray Squirrels and Black Squirrels. I had not noticed Black Squirrels before and that is why I looked at your page, I wanted to learn more about them. From my observations this morning, I do not believe that the black squirrel is a melenistic variation of the Eastern Gray Squirrel. The behavior, size and body movement of these black squirrels were similar to the Fox Squirrels and were not the same as the Eastern Gray Squirrel. I believe it is a seperate species from what I observed this morning. What reference do you have that the black squirrel is a melanistic variation to the Eastern Gray Squirrel? Michael —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.234.109.42 (talk) 20:20, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

OK, admittedly I don't know for sure whether black squirrels are a separate species or not. If anyone knows more than please add it to the article. An article which just lists where these squirrels have been spotted is not encyclopaedic in my opinion. AstroMark (talk) 17:09, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Disagree, don't merge. Black squirrels may not be classified as separate through phylogenetic nomenclature (I honestly have no idea), but they are certainly distinct enough in the popular eye to merit an article. There is enough that has been written about the black squirrels of Kent State University alone to establish notability. -- JeffBillman (talk) 03:40, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

But if we're going to keep it as a separate page then it at least needs to be more encyclopaedic rather than just a list of places where black squirrels have been spotted. AstroMark (talk) 17:35, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

I agree, a list of places where they've merely been spotted violates notability. Still, I think you'd have to agree that, in places like Kent, Ohio and London, Ontario, to say that black squirrels "have been spotted" is to make an understatement of magnitude similar to a statement like, "Groundhogs have been spotted in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania." The connection of animal to place goes far beyond that of merely an occasional sighting. -- JeffBillman (talk) 18:09, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

Here's something about black squirrels that looks reasonable.

http://chicagowildernessmag.org/issues/summer2005/squirrels.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.185.164.128 (talk) 20:45, 14 February 2008 (UTC)