Half red, half grey Squirrel. (1 Viewer)

[Wombat1]

Hi,

I live in a country location and have a squirrel in the garden at most times of the year, they have a favourite place on top of the Blue Tit nesting box.

Today I got some shots of one which looks to be a cross between the grey and red, some others have had some red on them in varying degrees but this has red legs, face, the tail is red overlaid with grey, and it has a red strip along the edge of the white under. It's back is mostly red with a grey flash down the sides.

Is it possible for them to crossbreed? One other I have pics of has some red on the front legs and face, as well as a little on the side and in the tail.

The pics are from today, it had some sort of nut which I don't recognise, with two joined. It ended up chewing them apart, buried one in the Iris, then took the other up the tree again and eventually ran off.

 

[aeshna5]

It's just a Grey Squirrel- they often show some reddish fur. Also you live a fair way from any Red Squirrel populations + I'm not aware of any hybrids, but guess it's not impossible.

 

[bitterntwisted]

As Aeshna says, this is a Grey Squirrel, and the reddish colour is just a variation which is more or less prevalent in different populations (was surprised to see that they are all red in San Antonio, Texas a few years ago) Red and Grey squirrels are not very closely related - since they are from different genera I would think it is practically impossible for them to hybridize.

Graham

 

[Wombat1]

Thanks aeshna and bittern, I guess if they are from different genera it would be nigh impossible for them to breed.

That's interesting too for grey squirrels to be all red!

He/she is cute though! Does anyone know what it has in it's mouth? It looks like a nut casing to me but I don't recognise it.

 

[Andy Bright]

Thanks aeshna and bittern, I guess if they are from different genera it would be nigh impossible for them to breed.

That's interesting too for grey squirrels to be all red!

I see far more black squirrels than grey, and they seem to be spreading out from their famed area of Letchworth/Hitchin. Quite a shock when you first see a black Grey Squirrel, but they become the norm after a while in north herts.

cheers,
Andy

 

[Wombat1]

Hi Andy, my curiosity is getting the better of me. I decided to google "red grey sqirrels", as I was wondering just what the main differences in red and grey are. It would appear that the ears of the red squirrel are larger, with tufts more in winter, and they are a different size to the grey (larger or smaller?).

This squirrel was quite large compared to any greys I have seen, and looking at pics of both, my squirrel has more the looks in the face of the red than the grey but doesn't have very large ears!

There is a pic near the bottom of a red squirrel which does have a lot of grey on it.

http://www.overthegardengate.co.uk/wildlife/squirrel.asp

Interesting variations! I haven't heard of a black one before, is there something about them that no-one knows? I imagine there must have been many in-depth studies carried out on squirrels, or has there?

I should expect to see a black squirrel in the near future, many creatures are travelling northwards.

Cheers!
Janet

 

[Andy Bright]

Hi Janet,
There are two species of Squirrel in the U.K.... the Red Squirrel is the native one, small and very rare. The Grey Squirrel is the newcomer introduced from North America.
What we are discussing here is the Grey Squirrel... some of these show more rufous colouring than others, but are nothing to do with our native Red Squirrel. The black variants of the grey Squirrel are simply melanistic variants, i.e. the opposite of albino. Black colouration is clearly not too bad in survival stakes of small wild animals in this country, where-as being white isn't too clever, so the black strain survives and carries on and you end up with a large (seemingly ever increasing) colony of these black Grey squirrels.
cheers,
Andy

 

[Wombat1]

Hello again Andy,

I have an inquiring mind, that is interesting to note that the black ones are more likely to be survivors, mother nature has it all worked out! Now I am wondering if the grey squirrel has a moving tendency towards being more red as well, the colour does tone in well with autumn leaves! (Not to mention the grey skies.)

I wonder if the proportion of grey squirrels with red has increased over the years, and how much of the colouring is due to a variant from breeding, or from evolutionary reasons other than that such as climatic conditions and nutrients, or both. Now if we could have seen a study from say a hundred years ago, and compare it with a study from the present, I wonder how it would read.

Cheers,

Janet

 

[Farnboro John]

Black Grey Squirrels can be seen at least from Little Brickhill on the Bucks/Beds border to north of Cambridge, so they cover quite an area already.

John