New White Squirrel Sightings!

5/27/2020

Photo by Jim Belote

While time at home has increased so has squirrel gazing 🐿👀. Over the past few months we have received photos and videos from across the country of squirrels people are seeing in their backyards! We really enjoy this, so please feel free to send us your squirrel photos and questions! 📸

We have had some exciting picture submissions from squirrel gazers that feature white squirrels. Last April we did a more detailed blog post describing the mystical and mysterious white squirrel. In today's post we want to share some of the photos people have so graciously shared with us recently and answer some of the questions they sent along with the photos.

Pictured below are a pair of partially white eastern fox squirrels that were spotted recently in Southern Indiana by home squirrel gazer John Waidner 🐿👀🏡.

These cuties are extremely interesting because not only are white squirrels rare, but white squirrels of the eastern fox squirrel variety are an even more rare occurrence in comparison to the eastern grey squirrel! And here Waidner spotted two in the same place! 🦄🐿

This extraordinary sighting left Waidner with some questions that we hope to help answer here!

Photo by John Waidner

Are these squirrels albino?

No! Although some squirrels are white due to albinism a condition that causes the complete absence of color pigment, these two squirrels are not albino. Albino squirrels can be easily distinguished by a lack of pigment in their eyes causing them to appear red.

The fact that these two squirrels have brown eyes and some coloration in their fur means their white color cannot be attributed to albinism. Instead these indviduals have a condition called leucism which leads only to partial loss of color.

Photo by John Waidner

What are the chances these two white squirrels are related?
Could they be identical twins?

Although we cannot be sure, it is possible that these squirrels are siblings because leucism is genetic and if their parents are carriers of the genes that led to this condition they would both stand a chance to inherit it.

However, it is pretty safe to assume they are not identical twins 🐿🐿. Squirrels typically give birth to 3 to 4 pups at a time and these pups are not genetically identical. Squirrel pups are all fraternal which means they are each the result of individually fertilized eggs and thus carry their own unique DNA 🧬. This is in contrast to identical twins that arise from a the same fertilized egg which divides during development resulting in offspring that are genetic copies of one another 🧬🧬.

Identical twins in the animal kingdom are extremely rare. They are notably observed in armadillos which always give birth to 4 identical offspring. This occurs because mother armadillos are only able to carry one egg at a time and the splitting of the fertilized embryo into 4 has evolved as an adaptation to allow armadillo mamas to have more offspring at one time.

Photo by John Waidner

Even though they may not be identical twins having two pups in a litter with white fur would not be completely out of the ordinary. Leucistic genes are recessive which means that a squirrel needs to inherit a gene coding for leucism from both parents in order for it to be expressed. Pups from the same litter have the same parents, thus they all will have had the same likelihood of inheriting these genes.

Finding two white squirrels born from normally colored parents will be a very rare occasion. This is why we often see groupings or "congregations" of white squirrel populations in specific locations rather than an even dispersal of white squirrels across the United States. One example of such a place is Kenton, Tennessee which claims to be the home of the white squirrel.

This squirrel only has a white tail, does it count as a white morph?

Photo by John Waidner

It is clear from the photo that this squirrel has leucism which is resulting in limited color pigment in this squirrel's tail causing its white or blonde like hue. However, whether or not squirrel gazers would refer to this as a "white morph" is an interesting question. For this we are going to defer to the foremost expert on white squirrels, biologist Rob Nelson, who through his awesome science website untamedscience.com, does extensive research on white squirrels in the United States.

According to how Nelson classifies squirrels for his work the term "white morph" appears to refer to rare occasions where squirrels are completely white. More specifically, white morph is often a reference to a completely white eastern grey squirrel, however, it does appear that there are extremely rare full white morph eastern fox squirrels. More commonly though eastern fox squirrels tend to express leucism in patches and the patches tend to be more blonde in color than white.

Here is a picture form the Untamed Science website demonstrating what these different color classifications look like:

Chart from https://untamedscience.com/biodiversity/white-squirrel/

Based on this information, the eastern fox squirrel with the white tail and the other squirrels in this post would be "PIBALD Whites." However, colloquially white morphs encompass all three of these groups.

To help Nelson and his efforts to understand more about these different variations of white squirrels and where they are located we encourage anyone who sees any variation of the above type squirrels to fill out his white squirrel tracking form! 🐿🔍🗺

The next set of beautiful pictures and the one at the top of this post were shared with us by Jim Belote who has been squirrel gazing from Arkansas.

Photo by Jim Belote

This squirrel, like the ones sent in from Weidner, would not be a full white morph but fall into the PIBALD white category because of the brown circles around its eyes.

Based on the location where this photo was taken, as well as, the squirrel's head shape, and pure white versus blonde fur, this individual is most likely an eastern grey squirrel. However, we would need a photo of other squirrels in the area to make a definitive guess.

Eastern grey squirrels are by far the most common squirrel species in the United States to show this white coloration. Incidents of of white eastern grey squirrel morphs popping up across their natural habitat which spans from the mid-west to the east coast outside of the congregations or groupings we mentioned earlier have been recorded at a fairly consistent rate. You can check out Nelson's map to get a better idea of where these squirrels have been spotted and add your own sightings!

Photo by Jim Belote

Any idea of the white morph frequency across the entire U.S. squirrel population?

More research in this area needs to be done to figure out exactly how rare it is to see a white squirrel in a normal population squirrels. Based on Nelson's data, out of the entire population of eastern grey squirrels that have some white coloration about 30% are albino and about 70% have leucism.

Other animals with leucism!

Squirrels are not the only animals that can carry the rare and recessive genes for leucism that cause white coloration. Pictured above is Nakoda the grizzly bear from Banff National Park in British Columbia who was recently spotted with her brown coated sibling 🐻🐻 and below is an incredible example of a peacock from the Madeira Botanical Garden. 🦚

Madeira Botanical Garden. Funchal, Madère, 2008

We hope you enjoyed this post! We want to send special thanks to John Waidner and Jim Belote for sharing their amazing photos and awesome questions with us! We love it! Keep on squirrel gazing! 🐿👀

Squirrel Gazer