Interesting. I’ve just started seeing them here in Virginia (the northern part, near DC). I had previously only seen them in California.
I first saw them here in Vireginia over the summer and the sightings were localized to a fairly small section of my neighborhood. By now, the sightings have since increased and cover a much larger area.
It also occurs to me that being more visible is an advantage in an urban setting where being more easily seen by drivers, and less likely to become roadkill, is more important than avoiding predators.
They are quite common in SE Minnesota. I’m not sure I’d go as far as to say the outnumber thier lighter pigmented brethren, but I doo seem to see them often (could be confirmation bias, I haven’t done a scientific count)
Norwalk, WI claims to be “Black Squirrel Capitol of the World”
http://www.villageofnorwalk.com/index.html
Brian
Norwalk, WI has a bad PR person then. They’re not even mentioned on the black squirrel Wikipedia entry.
Seems to me that black squirrels don’t particularly spread out much. From what I read in that article, they’re introduced to an area (many of the areas mentioned in this thread are mentioned in the article) and sort of take over, but not in a very wide circle. That’s why they’re in Kent but not Macedonia or Twinsburg (just a half hour away) but are also in Illinois. They sure didn’t migrate to Illinois.
Dennis Bergkamp (yes, yes, I know you’re not!) beat me to it, but DC has 'em too, even complete with the “someone introduced them into the area” origin story. I’d see them fairly frequently around Georgetown and the National Zoo.
ETA just looked at the Wikipedia site, and it looks like they actually were introduced to the area. I just figured since all the areas with black squirrels had such a story, that it was a borderline UL.
Really? S’okay, I’m not certain that Mpls qualifies as SE MN, but I’ve never seen one in my first-ring suburb. I’d like to, though - they seem cool. We used to have a ton of white squirrels scampering around, but I’ve only seen one around lately.
Nor on the Roadside America page on Black Squirrel Squabbles (not to be confused with White Squirrel Wars).