The Rise of The Black Squirrel

The appearance of black squirrels in New York State has been increasingly noticed in the past few years. Twenty years ago was my first sighting when I travelled with my family to Niagra Falls and spotted that first solid black animal scurrying among a bald tree on an island on a river leading to the park. It was a late fall day, and the trees were leafless but the most unusual solid black squirrels were everywhere. At the time, I did not realize them to be the same species as the grey, furry animals that i had seen all of my life in New York’s Hudon Valley region and surrounding areas. But unknown to me then, those very unusual ebony rodents, seemingly so foreign had been appearing in various sections of the country, turning heads and perplexing the human imagination.

In my ignorance, I had once thought of black squirrels as a species in themselves, distinct from the usual grey variety. In fact, they are a color variety of the eastern grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), with a genetic mutation that causes solid black fur, called melanism. An excess of dark pigment means they are a rare sight in most parts of North America, about one in 10,000, except in some areas where they have been observed for over a century. However, sightings of black squirrels have been increasing recently in New York State.

Live Science reported on its website that black squirrels in New York State derive from a combination of introductions and natural migrations: Most likely the result of a hybridization of grey squirrels with fox squirrels (Sciurus niger) in the wild. It’s known that fox squirrels have the dark pigment mutation in their genes – so they could have passed on the unusual inheritance to their hybrid descendants.

Black squirrels tend to have many of the characteristics of their lighter, grey furred, cousins, shelling, seeding and fruit foraging, and chewing on door casings, bench seats, and devouring the entirety of your front yard bird feeder. If they play the same games, have the same aptitudes, and do the same tricks as the other squirrels in the neighborhood, they will soon enough be busily raiding my yard for sunflower seeds. I believe the only real differences between the two species, intaracting or not, is that the black ones look much more menacing and unusual to onlookers and therefore get blamed for miscellaneous squirrel related destruction.

I have heard some people insist they come from Canada, others that the black squirrels come from the southern states of America, and read articles declaring that they are more aggressive toward one another, yet my own encounters had led me to that think they are more docile. The black squirrels that have shown up on my property to dine on my peanut feeders seem to be more angst-ridden than the other GF: grey, with some of the GF: insurgents that are allowed to wander under my deck threatening to try to fight it out with them. Though none insist that seagulls from Detroit or Neapolitan Buckeyes invaded Port Townsend, presumably because nobody is yet coming up with great accounts to explain their arrival, black squirrels tend to have many of the characteristics of their lighter hued cousins, shelling, seeding and fruit foraging, and chewing on door casings, bench seats, and golf balls rules so far as they are concerned. If they play the same games, have the same aptitudes, and do the same tricks as the other, whiter, itinaracting menages a trois of marauding suincy insanity of my brood will soon enough be busily raiding my yard for sunflower seeds. I believe the only real differences between the two species, intaracts or not, is that the black ones look much more menacing to onlookers and therefore get blamed for miscellaneous shredding.

And I’d like to think I’m not alone in New York State. Every day I read or hear from someone or something about these distinctive black squirrels that appear to be emerging in most regions of New York State. For many, the very presence of these black squirrels is fascinating. They’re tangible emblems of a wildlife diversity and the delightfulness of a natural world that at times seem to exist almost in the back alleys of our larger consciousness. What better messengers to bring laughter into our lives through strange and whimsical antics, cocked heads and backwards walks, than our very own furry black squirrels? They make me smile as they twirl up and down even the smallest of white birch trees for all the world to see and marvel.

The spread of these odd little creatures provides a Microcosm of the naturally wondrous ways of nature yet another illustration of the remarkable resilience of the earth’s diverse wildlife populations, their ability to cope and flourish in a multitude of habitats sometimes even in close proximity to us, their human neighbours. Observing them in local parks and backyards in the Northeast, we have the opportunity to experience nature’s beauty and biodiversity up close.