Clearing some things up about squirrels.

[trailtwister]

Fox squirrels are what most people hunt to eat. They come in at least 3 color phases in my area.
There is the reddish ones.





The gray color phase. some can have a reddish tint or even some with bits of black.





The black phase.




Then there is the plain old red squirrel which is very remotely related. considered a pest in my neck of the woods and many other places. I left my travel trailer at my deer camp not being used for a week, when I returned to deer hunt the nasty red squirrels had gotten in and chewed holes in the ceiling panel and in some of the side paneling made a real mess.



When I moved in my home 31 years ago all you saw was the red phase of the fox squirrel. about ten years ago the smaller grays started showing up and the only place you saw the black phase was in town. About 3 years ago the black ones started showing up in my woods. They are a bout the same size as the grays but some are as big as the red phase.

  Al

[coyote101]

Where I live, we have both fox and eastern gray squirrels, with the gray squirrels being much more numerous than the fox. The fox squirrels are considerably larger and a bit bolder, and will often leave the woods to enter, or even cross large fields, which the grays will seldom do. I shoot whichever one offers a shot and some days get a mix of both.

A couple of grays and a fox. Notice the difference in size, as well as the different coloring on the fringe of the tail.
   

Pat

[FinsnFur]

Do the black ones raise hell, tear shit up and kill each other?

[nastygunz]

Oh no he dint 

[slagmaker]

Do the black ones raise hell, tear shit up and kill each other?

Only if they have someone else's nuts and there's a news camera around

[trailtwister]

No the black ones mostly live in city parks and look cute for the city people.
Making city people think country folks are a bunch of blood thirsty killer.



  Al

[Okanagan]

No the black ones mostly live in city parks and look cute for the city people.
Making city people think country folks are a bunch of blood thirsty killer.



  Al

Interesting.  All of the squirrels I've seen in the big Stanley Park in downtown Vancouver, in Canada, are black.  Big black ones that I assume are grey squirrels.  The few I see out here 50 miles away are all in town and also black, pretty much jet black all over.

[Hawks Feather]

The first time I ever saw a black squirrel was in Canada around 1968.  Now they are all over.  I had heard once that they were a mutation, but never really looked it up to see if it was true or not.

Jerry

[JohnP]

That guy on the far right of the tailgate looks like a heck of a big squirrel.

[slagmaker]

That squirrel on the right is about average around my parts.

[trailtwister]

About average here too for the red phase.

  Al