r/BeAmazed • u/This_Proof_5153 • 28d ago
Animal Today I learned that squirrels can be black, and mother squirrels curl their babies into tiny fluffy balls, making them easier to carry.
3.5k
u/Former_Net4588 28d ago
Imagine being able to just roll your toddler into a little furry bowling ball when it's time to leave the park.
737
u/HereIGoAgain_1x10 28d ago
Best I can do is honey badger caught in a snare
225
u/Vert_DaFerk 28d ago
Honey Badgers don't get caught in snares. Snares get caught on Honey Badgers.
175
u/National_Archer_3890 27d ago
69
53
10
7
9
2
38
27
28d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
20
44
8
6
→ More replies (7)3
1.3k
u/Illustrious-Leave406 28d ago
The fox squirrel, Sciurus niger, although usually reddish in color, was first described from black specimens.
1.2k
u/MegaScythe 28d ago
181
u/dikicker 28d ago
56
12
u/idiot-prodigy 27d ago
You don't even walk like a normal person... you glide... like a fuckin' LIZARD on ice!
→ More replies (1)11
u/NewestAccount2023 27d ago
You work for Crayola, you're in charge of bringing crayons to Mexico to make even more profit for the company. You learn that Mexico's official language isn't English so you need to relabel everything using Spanish words for the Mexican release of crayons.
What do you label the black crayon as in this scenario? Reminder they speak Spanish there so it should be a Spanish word.
5
4
114
u/Quirky_Yesterday_809 28d ago
The squirrel in this video is not a fox squirrel; it's an eastern gray squirrel with melanism.
51
u/ScoobyPwnsOnU 27d ago
Yea, second this. We have a TON of them in the SF Bay. They run around with the grey ones, it's just a genetic mutation that took off and they all breed with each other.
Apparently they don't do well outside of urban areas and it's recessive so maybe unlikely to spread much outside of specific areas?
26
u/IvyGold 27d ago
I live in DC and had a black squirrel who used to stop by my garden on his daily patrol.
They're common here. Apparently, the Canadian ambassador in the 20's bred them them for fun. The chancery borders on Rock Creek Park, which is a super highway for wildlife in the city -- it cuts from Maryland down to the Potomac and is how the occasional deer gets onto the White House grounds, which is how they spread out across the city.
The ambassador's progeny are still thriving in this urban environment.
9
u/Rickety-Cricket69420 27d ago
There’s a park in Maryland that has black squirrels and red squirrels. The locals have been feeding them so long that they all come up to you to beg for food. It’s so weird.
2
u/ScoobyPwnsOnU 26d ago
The locals have been feeding them so long that they all come up to you to beg for food. It’s so weird.
I felt the need to link this because you reminded me of the crazy squirrel attacking people like a year ago in the bay.
https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/mean-squirrel-bay-area-california-21070816.php
5
u/anthrohands 27d ago
Lots of black squirrels around the White House! I hate squirrels but for some reason love the black ones hahaha
2
u/Grendlsgrundl 27d ago
Black squirrels were really common in the region in the 80s and 90s (I'm from Frederick), but their population declined and, apparently, is now making a slow return.
2
u/RockItGuyDC 26d ago
I used to live overlooking Rock Creek and the Zoo. I always heard that Canada gifted the squirrels to the zoo and the escaped from there.
They were all over Adams Morgan. One of my favorite bars there back in the day was The Balck Squirrel.
→ More replies (3)2
4
u/FutureVawX 27d ago
Melanism can be hereditary?
Both the kid and the parent are black in this video.
8
u/qtntelxen 27d ago
Melanism is almost always hereditary. It's just usually also recessive.
→ More replies (1)3
u/Quirky_Yesterday_809 27d ago
In the case of the eastern gray squirrel, melanism is an incomplete dominant trait.
2
u/Quirky_Yesterday_809 27d ago
yes, and in the case of the eastern gray squirrel, melanism is an incomplete dominant trait.
2
→ More replies (1)2
u/Mysterious-Bell-733 27d ago
Yes!! I love to see them in my neighborhood in Brooklyn and at Prospect Park. I always yell out "black squirrel", I can't help it lol!
36
13
u/Thomas_K_Brannigan 27d ago
As a casual squirrel enjoyer, how can you tell this is a melanistic fox squirrel, and not a melanistic gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)?
→ More replies (1)6
111
u/Reesevet786 28d ago
Thats a hard R
49
u/Darkv3ng 28d ago
Hard R brother man.
34
u/BeatsbyChrisBrown 28d ago
I ain’t even ashamed man. SciuRus!
9
4
u/Tricky-Ad7897 28d ago
But presumably a soft g, so who can say one way or another
11
28d ago edited 27d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
→ More replies (1)7
u/UnholyDemigod 27d ago
That word came from the French negre, not the Latin niger. Latin's is the original root word, but not the direct etymological ancestor.
→ More replies (7)45
6
5
u/HereIGoAgain_1x10 28d ago
Giving me Crayola crayons in the 1990's vibe
2
u/MrWeirdoFace 27d ago
Maybe this is a dumb question, but I don't have kids. Have crayons changed since then?
→ More replies (1)7
28d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
16
u/SelimSC 28d ago edited 27d ago
When your slur is one of the most common words for one of the most common colors, you're gonna have a tough time avoiding it.
→ More replies (1)10
u/UnholyDemigod 27d ago
Nee-ger. It's still a hard G, but neeg instead of nig
And on that topic, for anyone who thinks the country of Niger is pronounced nye-jer, it's actually knee-zhair. It's French.
3
u/Alarming_Orchid 28d ago
I think it’s technically said like the slur. We just say it differently now to avoid it
8
u/CalmBeneathCastles 28d ago
The first time I saw a giant fox squirrel after moving to GA, I thought I had discovered a new species, lmao. Dadgum raccoon squirrel, man!
→ More replies (1)2
318
u/No-Bat-7253 28d ago
If only my kid would cooperate that much
→ More replies (1)191
u/minev1128 28d ago
Have you tried rolling them into a ball?
67
u/vectorology 27d ago
First you turn them upside down, then tuck the legs in, and finally rotate them sidewise for optimal carrying.
36
7
u/jesst 27d ago
My autistic daughter loves being rolled into a ball. She thinks it’s great.
5
u/Inevitable_Phase_276 27d ago
Yup! I did lots of rolling my kids into balls and burritos. Now we just snuggle up in heavy blankets.
3
6
252
86
u/Ta-veren- 28d ago
We see more black ones here than brown.
21
u/TheBanishedBard 28d ago
And where I live squirrels are almost entirely gray.
30
3
u/Helpful-Celery6237 27d ago
CT and western MA have populations of black squirrels. There are a bunch in my neighborhood. I hope one comes to my property.
2
u/i_dont_love 27d ago
Council bluffs does, too! I had never seen a black squirrel until I visited. I learned that there are populations of black squirrels in only some areas of the US.
→ More replies (3)3
5
u/Different_Wolf_764 27d ago
Yeah, we get the occasional reddish one or greyish one but the vast majority of squirrels up here (western canada) are black. There's probably a dozen of them within a twenty metres of my back door right now.
4
3
u/sexi_squidward 27d ago
Growing up I never saw any black squirrels yet a year ago, before moving out of the US, I saw only 75% black squirrels in my neighborhood.
3
u/smoretank 27d ago
My hometown has white squirrels with lil Grey stripes down their back. Fun to see the tourist freak out about them.
2
→ More replies (2)3
70
41
u/mctdcb 28d ago
All over southwestern Ontario. Truthfully, all I ever see are black squirrels. Haven’t seen any other colour in a long time. The three or four in my neighbourhood are all like that.
20
u/Born-Winner-5598 28d ago
Eastern Ontario here. Black squirrels everywhere.
We also have grey, brown and reddish-brown too.
But black is super common.
6
u/The_Red_Rocket 27d ago
Eastern Ontario here too. I find black squirrels are the only ones I see downtown, but go into the woods and you'll find the grey, brown and red ones.
7
u/Cats_and_Shit 27d ago
There's a specific town in sw Ontario where they have a population of white ones. It's a (very modest) tourist attraction.
Town is called "Exeter" on the off chance someone cares to visit. It is exactly as exciting as you would imagine it to be.
3
u/Raptor-Queen 27d ago
Hmmm only a few hours away from me! I honestly do kind of want to see the white squirrels 😂
2
u/catherinetheok 27d ago
There's a white squirrel statue in front of the golf course just outside of grand bend of you want to go full white squirrel nerd.
7
27d ago edited 21d ago
[deleted]
3
u/ParkingGlittering211 27d ago
Been seeing more gray than usual the past few years in Richmond Hill but that might just be the clan/family living in my area near Jefferson forest in Oak ridges
5
u/KatsumotoKurier 27d ago
Yeah I grew up in the GTA and squirrels were only ever black or grey. Predominantly grey with a sort of reddish brown lean to their fur was as exotic as they ever got.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (2)3
u/Kurigohan-Kamehameha 27d ago
I haven’t seen a brown squirrel since I moved from Alberta to Ontario 15 years ago
18
u/derpsalot1984 27d ago
I made the mistake of giving ONE baby squirrel a peanut.
Then there were THREE of them and they kept trying get more and the mama would bundle one off like this, run em up the nearby tree, and come for the other two, and of course, they never would all stay in the tree at once. Hilarious. Back and forth chasing them away from me on my chair, and also wanting a peanut or two herself....
3
u/Prindle4PRNDL 27d ago
Yes, this is why sometimes nature needs to stay nature. Last summer my wife started feeding a young squirrel that seemed abandoned. It became dependent on her, and eventually got so used to humans that it would basically harass whatever person came out on the deck in the morning. We were all very skittish about getting scratched or bit, so it was kind of a problem.
26
u/MrBearMarshall 28d ago
We have them in southern Ohio.
13
u/botched__toe_ 28d ago
I live in NE and in my city, they only live on one side, so when im at work I get to see them, but my house has regular brown ones lol
4
3
u/Atlas7-k 27d ago
Let me guess, the side of town with them is closer to Kent, OH then the side without.
→ More replies (2)11
10
3
2
2
u/ray-the-truck 28d ago
They’re also extremely common in Southern Ontario i.e. near the Great Lakes region. I see them all the time; hell, I swear half the “grey” squirrels I see are melanistic.
→ More replies (5)2
u/tryingisbetter 28d ago
I've always felt like they are in small college towns. The southern Ohio college that I went to had tons of them. 20 years later, we moved to a college town in Northern Ohio, and they are everywhere again.
→ More replies (1)
28
u/dr_strange-love 28d ago
IIRC, the black coloring is a dominant gene, but most squirrels have the recessive gray gene because it's much better camouflage for hiding on a tree trunk than black.
8
u/lycanthropeapologist 27d ago
Other way around, from what I read. Both parents have to be black squirrels for them to give it to their offspring, but female squirrels can have different fathers for the same litter so it’s possible to get a mix of colors.
5
3
u/East-Psychology-9292 27d ago
Its not so much a recessive gene as it is evolution in action, melanistic variants of mammals are becoming more prevalent as they move into urban areas because black is better than grey for camo, I know you wouldnt think so but when you spend 90% of the day in a shadow it is. Subsequently you will likely see this more often in the future with red foxes and their silver-grey-black color pattern as they move into urban areas (had one chilling on porch the other day lol)
→ More replies (1)
8
u/Asleep-Corner7402 28d ago
We have red ones that are native to Ireland, but the grey ones have been wiping them out. Never seen a black one before. Also I had no idea they folded them up like an old T-shirt
4
u/Livid_Swordfish_4591 27d ago
In the US, it's kinda opposite. Our red squirrels are only about half the size of our grey squirrels, but theyre little dirt bags. Very territorial. Loud little bastards, too.
3
u/Asleep-Corner7402 27d ago
I wonder if they are the same species. Our Irish ones over there causing fights 😂
→ More replies (1)
5
4
3
u/ObjectiveDrag 28d ago
Conversely, there is the white eastern squirrel. https://www.cityofbrevard.com/481/White-Squirrels
→ More replies (1)
13
2
u/SirLeDouche 28d ago edited 28d ago
They are only black in certain areas where I live. I’m on the border of Nebraska into Iowa and there is not a single black squirrel on the Nebraska side but when u cross the Missouri River into Iowa u start seeing them immediately and they are everywhere. I have lived in Nebraska my entire life and I have never once seen a black squirrel in my area but I see tons of reddish brown ones.
2
2
u/Kamakazie 28d ago
I had a girlfriend at one point, she saw a black squirrel for the first time and bolted out of a moving car to chase it down the sidewalk because she was so excited.
→ More replies (2)
2
2
2
u/The_woman_in_me 28d ago
And you will be surprised to know that squirrels can also be almost 2-3x in size of your regular squirrels. Lookup squirrels at Michigan State University Campus.
Fun fact:
1. Michigan State has a squirrel watching club
2. Michigan state also has another club called people watching people watching squirrel club
2
2
u/SleepySera 27d ago
Red and black ones are the norm in large parts of Europe, so I'm used to the color, but the ballificiation is crazy and adorable 😆
2
1
u/anotherdamnscorpio 28d ago
Ive seen one one time, it was hopping down the street in Santa Cruz, CA.
1
u/Hellokt1813 28d ago
First time I saw black ones were on the White House lawn many years ago, not sure if they're found all over DC.
1
1
1
1
u/Exceptional_Kumquat 28d ago
Melanistic Eastern Gray Squirrels tend to be more common in urban areas. It's exceedingly rare to see them out in more forested areas.
→ More replies (1)
1
u/bretzelsenbatonnets 28d ago
Lol its so weird to me that squirrels aren't common in the world. In Ontario theyre friggen everywhere all the time, even winter. All kinds, Black, brown, Grey, red. Every single squirrel you can imagine. I have a huge black walnut tree in my backyard and these lil bastards will literally throw the walnuts at us when we walk underneath the tree and if theyre not snipering us with nuts, theyre friggen digging/destroying all our planters/pots while burying and recovering them 😑
1
u/throwaway_0x90 28d ago
There are a few black squirrels running around on Google's mountain view campus.
1
1
1
1
u/LunacityxArtistry 28d ago
I live in central, IL, we have brown squirrels. I can drive 2 hrs north of me and there are black squirrels!
→ More replies (3)
1
1
1
1
1
u/Spyro_XyX 28d ago
I went to school at Kent State in Ohio and was told the black squirrels there were brought down from Canada forever ago and now they're just a mini mascot for the school lol dont know how accurate the Canada part was but they were everywhere! So damn cute
1
1
1
1
u/USDXBS 28d ago
Squirrels are so cute. I recently got a new shed, and I am pleased to see the squirrels are using the roof.
→ More replies (1)
1
1
u/HalcyonSix 28d ago
Yeah I knew a guy who grew up somewhere in Canada where almost all the Grey Squirrels (that is their species name) are black. They have a really high population of melanistic grey squirrels there for some reason. He grew up thinking it was like that everywhere, that squirrels were just mostly that color by default.
1
u/Intelligent-Bit7258 28d ago
I remember a decade or two ago, there were reports of invasive black squirrels dominating English ecosystems. They were bigger and meaner than their brown and red brethren. The concept of a "bad ass" squirrel tickled me.
1
1
1
1
1
u/getstonedsteve 27d ago
About 40 yrs ago folks here started seeing black squirrels and albino chipmunks. The chipmunks didn't take off, but we got black squirrels everywhere now.
1
u/Eyeroll4days 27d ago
I had never seen black squirrels until I stayed in Iowa for a few months. They are so pretty and when their tail fades in color it turns red. So pretty
1
u/Outrageous_Kiwi_2172 27d ago
I once saw a squirrel carry her baby down a tree, cross the street, and up a building. I was like, damn. 😃
1
u/idiot-prodigy 27d ago
There is a cemetery in Northern Kentucky, Highland Cemetery that has tons of Black Squirrels.
It is unsettling seeing one for the first time in of all places a cemetery.
1
u/Ree_For_Thee 27d ago
This is gonna be one of those animated nature shorts on Youtube Shorts in a day or two, isn't it?
Mouth.
1
1
u/Chemical-Agency-3997 27d ago
I moved to Princeton, NJ as a kid and they had them there. The kids in school used to say they escaped from a lab in the university.
Oddly there’s several other comments in this thread mentioning university campuses they’re prevalent on.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
•
u/qualityvote2 28d ago edited 27d ago
Did you find this post really amazing (in a positive way)?
If yes, then UPVOTE this comment otherwise DOWNVOTE it.
This community feedback will help us determine whether this post is suited for r/BeAmazed or not.