Dave Smith wrote:
> Doug Freyburger wrote:
>> Sacha wrote:
>>>
>>> Black squirrels are now appearing in numbers in Jersey which has both
>>> reds and greys. I saw them in my son's garden in November and it was
>>> the first time I'd spotted them there. He says they're seeing more and
>>> more of them.
>
>> They are here in Chicago metro as well. They look to me like grey
>> squirrels that happened to inherit different colored fur.
>
> They are all variations of the Easdtern Gray squirrel. For a long time,
> most of the squirrels here in the Niagara peninsula were gray, while
> those in Toronto tended to be black.

I grew up near Buffalo on the other side of the Niagara River. We had
mostly grey squirrels that were all gray and a few red squirrels that
were a different species. Over the years there were fewer and fewer red
squirrels.

> The local squirrels seem to have
> undergone drastic changes lately. Most of them are grey, but there are
> more and more that are reddish.

On the US side so far I have not seen any black ones yet while visiting
my family in Buffalo.

> There is an interesting population of
> squirrels hanging out in a cemetery in Niagara Falls.Almsot every one of
> them is a different colour. One is black with a black and white tail.
> The first time I saw it I thought that it was a skunk. Another is light
> brown with a blond tail.

Cool.