Photo ops

[icehousebob]

The only pictures I can take are disposable camera ones. BUT, if anyone is interested, I've been working nights this week and twice, while driving home in the morning through St. Louis Park, I've seen a pair of albino squirrels feeding on a golf course. That makes four places in the western suburbs that I know of that have multiples and many generations of albinos. If anyone were to want to photograph them sometime, I,d be happy to show them a couple of likely spots. But then again, maybe they aren't that rare. Just a thought. Just because I can't take pictures doesn't mean I don't enjoy looking at the ones that you guys post.

[Steve Foss]

Thanks for thinking of us Bob.

[floating minnow]

Thanks Ice,

Would that be Meadowbrook golf course?

[Dbl]

I actually have two in my backyard. They seem to run in streaks as to how common they are. About every 5 years or so we seem to get a new batch that are around for a couple of years and the cycle starts again. This is an old photo taken with an early point and shoot but I will make an effort to try and shoot something new.

[Dbl]

Here is a quick photo of one of the albino's in my backyard. Not the most picturesque with the power line, but you take what you can get sometimes. He looks a little battle worn to me.

[mudslinger64]

they are not true albinos,they are a mutation of the grey squirrel just like the black ones.but they are pretty cool i have seen different ones around where i work.

[icehousebob]

Floating Minnow, you're right, it is Meadowbrook Golfcourse. If you head west from the intersection of Louisiana and Excelsior for about a hundred yards, there is a low area about 50 yards off the road with some mature trees. That's where I've seen them about 7am.

Dbl, I think you're right about them coming in streaks. I mentioned to one woman that I had seen a partial and a full albino across from her house and she said that they used to have several but it had been a couple years since the last ones were there. So the others were still carrying the genes. And these were true albinos, complete with the pink eyes. The all black ones are supposed to be rarer than all white. A coon hunting friend got two all black coons out of the same bunch of trees one night and those are the only ones he has ever seen. He had the larger of the two mounted. It doesn't even have rings on its tail.

The Excesior city park, down by the lake with the playground, has had albino squirrels for as long as anyone can remember. The people get really upset if you mess with their squirrels.

[Dbl]

I believe if you look at the photo that squirrel has pink eyes, I always thought that meant that they were true albinos. By our lake cabin in the Fergus Falls area we have the black ones. They had not been around for a few years and last year I began to see them again. Those I thought were a mutation of the grey. I guess I have no idea which is correct, but they are cool to see none the less.

[icehousebob]

Dbl, From what I've read, the black is a mutation of the gray, just as the albino is. The albino is a lack of pigment and the black is the overabundance of pigment. There's a fancy name for them but I forget. I imagine that Fox squirrels and Pine or Red Squirrels could also have the same mutations, we just see more of the Grays.

[Steve Foss]

All three color types are gray squirrels. The black color is described as melanism, and the black squirrel is considered a melanistic gray squirrel. Melanism is an overabundance of the dark melanin granules in fur, feathers or skin, which produces black or darker-than-normal fur/feathers/skin. The white squirrel pictured here is an example of albinism, and is called an albino. Albinism is the absence of melanin. The pink eye indicates this animal is a true albino, lacking any melanin. Alibinism and melanism are both genetic.

In humans, melanin is what allows us to get suntans. Many fair-skinned people (including some redheads like me), don't have much melanin, and we sunburn easily.

[Dbl]

And there is the answer, thanks Steve.