Black Squirrels

[Deker 3,478]

Ok...I admit I know nothing about these, so how come they hit the headlines, what's the story, is this a wind up or what..........

 

Cheers

[SEAN3513 7]

Mmmmmm.......wondered the same same myself.......some kind of mutant i beleive????

 

we get quite a lot of wild black rabbits over here...................but squirrels???? no....

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

This was all covered recently, with citations. Wasn't it somewhere around Hertfordshire that they're outnumbering the gray morphs? Said to be more aggressive too. Scientifically proven fact that black fur on a creature of a given species Does tend to show a more aggressive creature too. Study was done on rats and the black R. norvegicus was a biter.

 

Just check Google. Should be on there.

[Coney 3]

Very interesting DS will have a look that!

[Dawn B 212]

No wind up and they are on the increase.

 

http://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/fr/INFD-6HTK9B

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtm...squirrel226.xml

[dytkos 17,783]

This was all covered recently, with citations. Wasn't it somewhere around Hertfordshire that they're outnumbering the gray morphs? Said to be more aggressive too. Scientifically proven fact that black fur on a creature of a given species Does tend to show a more aggressive creature too. Study was done on rats and the black R. norvegicus was a biter.

 

Just check Google. Should be on there.

Could be construed to be racist Ditch! So probably true. Cheers, D.

[masmiffy 82]

Ditch is right this was covered a while ago.

I have a couple of the black ones in my back garden (Buckden Cambs) they seem to get on OK with the greys certainly havent scared them off yet!

Was also told Hertfordshire had loads so guess they are working north.

Def hadnt seen them local until about 3 years back

[speedlamper 0]

fecking blackies, come over here stealing our nuts

[nttf 0]

Black Squirrels are a color phase of the Grey Squirrel. The two will be seen in the same areas and will breed between the two colors. It is not uncommon to have both grey and black in the same litter.

 

You will find however that the more breeding that takes place the more black color phase you will see as it is a dominant color gene. Meaning that after one generation of of black x grey the young will carry both black and grey color genes. At this point a black has a dominat black gene, and a grey will have a resessive black gene. looks like this:

 

Black=BLK x blk

Grey= GRYx blk

 

From here on chances are that they young will be shown in the black color phase as even two GRY x blk mating will produce a double resseive blk which will outway the grey gene. Although you will also get some grey in the litter. Belive it or not we also get them grey with black tails, and some grey or black with an opposite color mask.

 

The funniest one I have ever seen looked like a galloway cow black front to shoulders, grey body to hips then a black hips and tail.

 

Start training up the squirrel dogs and have fun.

 

NTTF