11/8/2002: Albino squirrel

A white squirrel munches on some nuts in Olney, Ill., Saturday Oct. 12, 2002. A rare colony of albino squirrels lives in Olney and the town attracted squirrel nuts from across the country to mark 100 years since the squirrels were first spotted. Retired zoology professor John Stencel says the colony of about 200 albino squirrels is one of three known in North America. They are all white, with pink eyes.

Mrs. UT says they had an albino squirrel on the Penn State campus in the mid 80s.


(ref. The Simpsons)
Principal Skinner: "You'll be getting an Albanian [exchange student]." Homer: "You mean all white with pink eyes?"



I hate being late to post Friday images. Sorry folks.

These guys are quite rare and are found Olney in Illinois.

Gun-Totting Grandad Gets His Terrorist Squirrel

I drove through Olney once. Quiet place...didn't see these squirrels. Given Olney's location (southeastern Illinois, near the Indiana border), they could use all the excitement they can get.

Quote:

Originally posted by sycamore I drove through Olney once. Quiet place...didn't see these squirrels. Given Olney's location (southeastern Illinois, near the Indiana border), they could use all the excitement they can get.

Personally, I think the BBC article is much better written.

Then there's this from Ananova.

This town is nuts furred.

I was attacked by a squirrel once. actually I was taking senior pictures and was standing next to a tree with Kakies on. This squirrel ran up to me and climbed halfway up my leg before he realized what was going on. Was quite a surprise at the time.

Did he get your nuts?

Re: 11/8/2002: Albino squirrel

Squirrel Fishing!

Squirrel Fishing!

There is a large maple tree outside my apartment that almost touches my balcony. The squirrels that hang out there are incredibly docile...they come up to my balcony door all the time.

There used to be a white squirrel along Lear Lane in Boiling Springs PA that I would see when biking. it got hit by a car and a couple whpo used to feed it had it stuffed.

Another sighting was along Wesley Drive in Mechanicsburg, about 10 miles from the Boiling Springs location.

They are easy to see...

Tufts University had an "albino" squirrel in the mid 1990s, I have a picture of it somewhere.

I have a real life squirrel attack story:
Mpls, 1989.
I was single, living in an older apt, third floor walk up. My bedroom window sported a small air conditioner in the window next to my bed. Because the side extensions didnt quite fit the larger window, I had added a small board to the long side. One night I heard the scratching. It continued. I could just see a bit looking down through the window from on top of the air conditioner. No critter spotted, but a nest was being built. Whatever, I'm a renter, its cute, maybe baby birds. It worsened. Gnawing, chomping, major wood removal. Sawdust. It was coming through the board. I called the super, he was casual, he'd come see it soon. The nights were filled with chewing- 8 feet from my head. I would bang on the window. Yell and make vicious barking dog noises. From the window top I could see momma- no tail, just a stump- she lunged at my face, sharp, pointy teeth exposed, hitting the glass. I growled back. I applied more layers of board, the holes continued to grow. Running out of barrier materials I stuffed notebooks, tin foil, shoe boxes, an ice tray. No super. I went on the assault. Windex and 409 sprayed through the crumbling barrier. Die Die you Bitch. The squirrel would not be stopped. She stared at me with beady eyes, attacked the glass. Now came the squeaking baby noises. Naked writhing squealing rats.
Finally the laid-back super came. It had been 3 weeks. When he saw the state of my window, I believe he said, "Jesus Christ!" or perhaps it was "Holy shit!". I could see he had a new admiration for my plight. The plan was to remove the a/c and destroy the nest. But where was momma? She was not visible. He began to remove the layers of chewed barrier and became more frightened. He asked if I would please get something to hit mom with if she showed up, pissed. I had a baseball bat cocked and ready. It was going down. Piles of debris, shredded mail, the super's visa bill was recognizable. One bald baby, placed in a shoe box and wisked out to death. No guilt. The window side and sill were chewed away. When the pane was lowered, there was a hole to clear to the outside.

Many months later I was preparing to move to TX with my new spouse. My friend's kid, who was 3 at the time, asked out of the blue, if I was leaving because of the mean squirel, because that was just not right.

That was beautiful.

Squirrel pics-

I love to watch squirells, almost more than any other animal that is often photographed. Not too long ago, in the middle of spring I made a hobby out of photographing them. A drink in the other hand as I tip-toed out from behind trees to try to get the best shot possible. It is extremely difficult to do with a camera that only offers a 2x zoom. But anyways, I did manage to spill a few drinks in the process but I tell you that it was anything but wasted time even if none of the pictures were worth a damn in the end. I wonder what sort of camera was used to take such wonderfully focused pictures, and drink to them as well, CHEERS!!

I walked through one of my friends campuses last weekend and I swear they had the biggest squirrels I had ever seen. The things were the size of a small dog. now that would be something to have clawing at your window. Almost as scary as seeing warch "yell and make vicious barking noises."

You sure it wasn' a dwarf?

My next door neighbor has one, a female that has just delivered a litter of dwarfs. The mother looks just like Droopy from Tom and Jerry and her nipples scrape against the ground as she walks. I don't see how she does it as painful as it looks- but it musn't really be that bad. Hey wow, look at all of this milk!

The white squirrels are also prevalent hereabouts ... they are a fairly common sight on the Norristown State Hospital property -- I see them when they let me out for walks . And there's a black squirrel that comes to raid my bird feeder.

Princeton New Jersey has a whole group of black squirrels. I saw them there years ago, and a friend has seen them on the Princeton campus recently.

Click on the image ... sqwerls!

Amusing!

The chatter around Princeton is that the black squirrels are a result of radioactivity leaking from an experiment somewhere in the Physics Department and causing genetic havoc.

My alma mater Kent State University has black squirrels and this is the official story:

ten rare black squirrels were imported from Canada in February 1961 by Larry Woodell, superintendent of grounds, and M. W. Staples, a
retired executive of the Davey Tree Expert Company. When first released, the large, black-spiked squirrels were frequently mistaken for
skunks. Today they own the campus. The Black Squirrel Festival started in 1981 as a day-long event held on the Student Center Plaza to introduce new students to campus and community organizations. Now it features barbeques, live bands, and local artisans.

Here is the magnet you can buy while overpaying for your books: