A squirrel fitting the description of previous posts from New Hampshire has turned up under my bird feeder here in western Massachusetts. It’s small for a grey and large for a red; mostly grey with a rusty back. I took some pictures through a hazy window, one with a redpoll in the frame to establish its size. Has anyone determined what this cute little beasty is?
In NW AR, the reds average bigger than the greys. ::: shrug :::
It’s not uncommon for grey squirrels just to have a bit of brownish-redness to them - if you just do a Google image search for ‘grey squirrel’, some examples are very grey, others are distinctly brownish.
In fact, the very first photo in the “description” section of the Eastern gray squirrel Wiki page shows a gray squirrel that is actually reddish brown in color.
[QUOTE=Wiki]
As the name suggests, the eastern gray squirrel has predominantly gray fur, but it can have a brownish color.
[/QUOTE]
Here’s an observation today at 10AM Eastern. March 4th I have a group of 3 fat grey squirrels that raid my (Anti squirrel) bird feeder daily. I observe a single little red squirrel daily. After they left -
This morning followed along the weirdest threesome I have ever seen. A little red squirrel sized - grey squirrel - with some red shading. Two strange companions. A full sized grey squirrel with bright red ears (and red fur surrounding its eyes). The third was a small red.
I’ve seen occasional red, black, and white squirrels in the Northeast from Maryland to Massachusetts. Only one red looked like it was entirely red, and I’ve long wondered if it was actually some other animal (defintely not a chipmonk). The largest squirrels I’ve ever seen were in Toronto, living in an a hotel atrium. Perhaps they were well fed, they seemed to be nearly a foot tall sitting up, but probably less than that, just unusually large compared to the typical scrawny squirrel I’ve seen.
I am amazed by the apparent ability of the red and grey squirrels to ce-exist peacefully in the US …( based on the admittedly anecdotal evidence in this thread) .
Over here in Scotland, it is definitely not the case…our native red squirrel has been practically decimated by advent of the more robust grey ( a non native species imported from the US by our ill advised Victorian ancestors).
There is a distinct possibility that the red may become extinct in the UK in our lifetime …
I wouldn’t say peacefully…
I’m no expert, but I’m under the impression that the Grey Squirrel is muscling out the Red in the United States too. Perhaps not as quickly or effectively, but still I’ve heard of it as a problem.
Saw a white squirrel in Montreal for the first time last year. Snapped a photo with my cellphone.
Just saying.
As I mentioned above seven years ago, the American Red Squirrel belongs to a different genus (Tamiasciurus) than the Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). They are specialists on pine seeds and don’t compete directly with the Gray Squirrels.
The Eurasian Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) is an entirely different species and belongs to the same genus as the Gray Squirrel. The two species compete much more directly than American Red and Gray Squirrels.
We have red, black,and grey squirrels by us and I have seen them breed so I would say they can have mixed breeds,The truly red squirrel are very much more red than the grey and red mix. There is ine squirrlel that is too dark to just be a grey squirrel and not as dark as the black one.
I realize this is an OLD thread, but I found it while trying to research the question in the original thread, Is it possible for red and gray squirrels to interbreed?
A friend of mine recently took a picture of a very unusual red and gray squirrel. It is so unusual that she has been asked many questions about it. But she says she has not photoshopped the photo, only used filters to enhance the color if anything.
I have looked for the pictures and albums link on my control panel page, but I cannot find it, otherwise I would post the photo. If anyone is interested and can tell me how to upload (I see the instructions, just cannot find the link) I will post.
Thanks!
CarolinaFran
It is an interesting subject. I live in SE Michigan and my neighborhood is in the long transition from red to black squirrels. Ten, fifteen years ago you wouldn’t find a black one hereabouts, now it’s fifty/fifty.
There’s even on black squirrel with a mostly white tail.
Squirrel hunted all my life in Minnesota.
There we have 3 predominate ones…
small red squirrels ( about half way between chipmunk and gray squirrel ) Noisy…a pest…no one hunts them
Gray squirrels
Fox squirrels ( slightly bigger than a gray squirrel and more reddish )
Gray and Fox are the two types hunted in my area of Minnesota.
Images are disabled on this board. What you would have to do is upload it to a photo sharing site (e.g. Flickr, Imgur, Shutterfly, etc.) and then post a link here.
yes.
The old idea that different “species” don’t interbreed is nonsense. Its an idea that explains why there are distinct species to be seen … that they DIDNT interbreed so much, but doesn’t require that they CANNOT (for genetic reasons) interbreed. One reason they wouldnt interbreed is proximity… not living in the same place!
Even when they are very different species, there are hybrids.
look at lion,tiger hybrids
look at llama and yak hybrids.
Look at this list of known squirrel hybrids
The article explains that the coat colour of squirrel species tended to blur over to the neighbouring areas squirrels at that edge, but not at the other edge. because they interbred and the other coat colour was dominant genetically.
The various families of squirrels maybe are unlikely to interbreed but it seems that all tree squirrels would inside themselves, and all ground squirrels would,
and some specific cases of cross-family squirrel might be possible due to chance.
But nobody claims that. The definition of species is not that they can’t interbreed, but that they generally don’t. If they do, then they’re not actually separate species.
Now, Colibri was saying in this thread that the squirrels in question probably can’t interbreed, but he was basing that, not just on them being different species, but different genera. And most of the time, creatures can’t in fact breed outside of their genus (there are exceptions, but that’s why his statement included “probably”).
And I’ve seen those intermediate-looking squirrels around here, too. I had a hunch that the blacks and grays were the same species (similar body shape and size), but the reds look very different.
Cite? That has not been established, and I believe your own link demonstrates it does not occur (see below).
Yes and no. If two forms can’t interbreed, then they are certainly different species. However, many good species are capable of interbreeding and even producing fertile hybrids (wolves and coyotes, many ducks). They don’t interbreed in nature very much because of different courtship behaviors, different timing of breeding, or other factors. But not interbreeding very much in nature even if they are in contact is a requirement for two forms to be considered different species.
True, but lions and tigers are fairly closely related, being members of the same genus, and the hybrids are mostly sterile.
As far as I know, these don’t exist, and would be extremely unlikely since these species are in different families. You may be thinking of llama x camel hybrids, which do exist. They are very unusual since they are an intergeneric cross, although in the same family.
Hybridization becomes increasingly unlikely as the degree of relationship decreases. Closely related species in the same genus often hybridize. More distantly related members of the same genus may hybridize or may not. Members of different genera are capable of hybridization only very rarely.
You’ll note that in every single one of those examples the two species are members of the same genus. In fact, since it doesn’t list any examples of hybrids between Gray Squirrels (Sciurus) and North American Red Squirrels (Tamiasciurus) that article is good evidence that they don’t occur. Since the genera widely overlap in range, and some species are often kept in captivity, that means hybridization is probably not possible.
What species are you talking about? I don’t see that example.
All North American squirrels are in the same family, Sciuridae, so I don’t know what “families” you are talking about. “Tree squirrels” and “ground squirrels” each include several different genera.