Bill,

It's odd that the blacks act so differently in your area. They really aren't a different species of squirrel, they're usually just a melanistic color phase of the local population. On the Eastern Shore they have an oddball squirrel species that's dark colored but I believe the mainland ones are just standard.


Destry

These at my place are the ones that were planted at the National Zoo many years ago, specifically, eight of them in 1902, and a few more in 1906. They were transplanted from the Rondeau Provincial Park in Morpeth, Ontario. They took many years to get to my area about 30 miles north of the zoo. Organizations who follow such things report that none had been sighted and reported within miles of here just a couple of years ago. Maybe we have some that were artificially transplanted. The ones I transplant are sent only a short distance from here. My Wirehair just hates them, but is less intolerant of the greys.

I understood that grays and blacks are geneticaly the same - like yellow and black Labs

the blacks i have seen have been of larger size than gray...the black were as large as the fox squirl.... charlie

We have some black squirrels in my area (PA), but as others have already stated - they are just gray squirrels with black fur. (Some are actually a very dark brown - almost black, but look black from a distance...)

However, I was vacationing in Ontario a few years back and I saw black squirrels up there. They did not look the same as our gray/black local squirrels. They looked a tiny bit bigger, had taller ears, and seemed more spastic.

Here in Connecticut it grey's all the way with an albino mixed in every so often.

I've seen albinos here too, but very few ! Black squirrels are much more common (although neither are "common").

Destry,
When we lived on the Eastern Shore ( Chestertown) we saw them fairly frequently and they were protected at the time-----Delmarva Fox Squirrels ! Lots of "pintos".

Hunting the wiley grouse in Montmorency, Oscoda and Ogama Counties, MI, I have come across many small (smaller than local foxies) black squirrels and no other kind. They also have huge white bunnies, dang near as big as the dog; always carry a couple rounds of #3 buck in case of a charge.