That's the thing though, it's not. Well, maybe "mildly" uncommon. The thing I find so fascinating is that they seem to be common in the areas they exist, but extremely rare otherwise. I had literally never seen them before and I grew up in the same area. I didn't even know they existed. I think that's true for a lot of people, but now I see them every day.
Black squirrel population densities are very high in michigan/Ontario. But also notably high in city regions. I went to a seminar on the topic, was fascinating. Apparently they were at one point the major pigment of squirrel, hypothesized to be due to large amount of hemlock/cedar pre-colonialization
I am really loving the replies to this thread (especially the ones implying I'm dumb because "all" squirrels look like this). Squirrels are so common in North America that I never really thought about the genetic diversity of them. Like, sure, there are other species, but I had literally only seen gray squirrels until a few years ago. It's so interesting to hear what is normal in other areas.
Also, to repeat what I've said elsewhere, the weirdest thing is they are ONLY in my town - if you go a mile in any direction you don't see them (or they're much less common).
Yeah they were hypothesizing that Black squirrels stand out more on normal city pavement as compared to gray squirrels and are thus less likely to be hit by vehicles. They didn't have much evidence yet other than statistically, michigan and Ontario aside, Black squirrel population are densest in urban settings
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u/lveg 8h ago
That's the thing though, it's not. Well, maybe "mildly" uncommon. The thing I find so fascinating is that they seem to be common in the areas they exist, but extremely rare otherwise. I had literally never seen them before and I grew up in the same area. I didn't even know they existed. I think that's true for a lot of people, but now I see them every day.