White squirrel on bike path

[tesho.livejournal.com]

An albino white squirrel now appears to live on the eastern end of the bike path between Willow Ave and the Lexington Playground. I was under the impression that this has already been mentioned here, but I couldn't find it.

Here are a few photos I caught with my camera, which are no match for the one I found on Flickr just now.

Comments

[jovianconsensus.livejournal.com]

Looks like my hamster escaped. And sprouted a bushy tail.

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

Hamster? Looks more like local rats are wising up to The Man and disguising themselves by dressing up their little ratty tails with something a bit more luxe.

[maclou.livejournal.com]

Aw it's cute....

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

There used to be one who lived in the park at Powderhouse 6 or 7 years back. I hope s/he lived a long (for a squirrel) and happy life.

The one in your post is a cutie!

[mamabunny72.livejournal.com]

I've seen a white squirrel on Wallace St near Park Ave in recent weeks.

[fangirl715.livejournal.com]

A couple of years ago there used to be an albino squirrel that seemed to spend a lot of its time just off the bike path & behind that first house (other than the condos) on Morrison--could it be the same one? I hadn't seen it in well over a year, and I don't know how long squirrels usually live, but perhaps this one is a relation, or there's an odd genetic mutation in the area resulting in albino squirrels?...

[daft.livejournal.com]

This is the best use of this community I have ever seen.

No lie.

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

There is a pair of white squirrels that live right in Davis Square itself. Those Flickr photos are of one of those, it looks like. (I recognize the storefront of Salon Femia.)

White squirrels, unlike albino squirrels, aren't particularly rare, it turns out. Both of these look more like white squirrels rather than albino squirrels. Albino squirrels would probably have problems with depth perception, which is bad news if you have to leap from tree to tree.

[squonk.livejournal.com]

They'd probably be photophobic, too. Man, talk about a bad combo for a squirrel.

[ksushis.livejournal.com]

I think if it was albino squirrel it had to have red eyes, kind of like this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UNTalbinosquirrel.jpg
This one must be a white squirrel. It's very cute. I hope I'll meet one one day :).

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks! I'm on that stretch of path a lot; I'll be on the lookout.

They are rare

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

but I've seen several in Boston.

[beatniktea.livejournal.com]

I've seen that little guy on the path, too. so cute. :)

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Cool! Thanks for posting this.

That does look like a leucistic squirrel, rather than an albino squirrel, as said upthread.

[maru-mari.livejournal.com]

enjoy it while it lasts! lol. There's a reason they're rare.

Thanks for posting :)

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

Hah! I was about to say "I saw that little guy out by our compost bin," when I realized that your photo *is* out by my compost (the green and yellow give our house away).

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

also, albino animals Totally Creep Me Out, so whenever I see him when I'm taking out my compost a shiver runs up the back of my neck. *twitch.*

Mod Note

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting these -- they're awesome!

But please put all but one behind a cut. Thanks.

Re: Mod Note

[tesho.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I'm new to LJ (it only looks otherwise because I'm not new to HTML). What's a cut? You mean a line break and maybe an <hr> after the first image?

Re: Mod Note

[ron_newman]

No, we mean an <lj-cut> tag after the first photo. (This is an LJ-specific tag, not part of real HTML.)

Re: Mod Note

[tesho.livejournal.com]

Done. Thanks, Ron!

Re: Mod Note

[ron_newman]

Thanks! Love the photos, by the way.

[unsi-sempai.livejournal.com]

Wow, cool! There's at least one black squirrel living near Packard Ave., but I'd never seen a white one!

[midorionna.livejournal.com]

used to see one like that all the time at my old place near johnny d's. we called him whitey bulger :)

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

I saw a white squirrel on Broadway near Powderhouse Square a few weeks ago. It was leaping around on a tree. Either the beast gets around or there's more than one!

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

Cool! Thanks for posting this.

[livingadream.livejournal.com]

There's a black squirrel who romps around my neck of the woods (Ball Square/near Powderhouse Rotary). I just wish that all squirrels, black and white could live in peace and harmony - romping the streetz of Somerville together.

If you had your choice of colors, which one would you choose my brother

[squonk.livejournal.com]

When I lived in Canada, black squirrels were everywhere--it was rare to see a grey one. Seems like the opposite down here.

Re: If you had your choice of colors, which one would you choose my brother

[craigindaville.livejournal.com]

I grew up in Princeton, NJ and they were all over there, too. There was an urban legend that the black was a genetic manipulation in some Princeton U. lab, and that students painted their tails orange around big game days (Princeton Tigers being the mascot).

Re: If you had your choice of colors, which one would you choose my brother

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

Black squirrels are (at least some of them) from Spain, before people really knew the repercussions of importing wildlife they brought a lot of them in for parks and things. They're a lot more aggressive than the average grey squirrel, so in some areas (like in Westfield MA, where they were imported for Stanley Park) they took over!

I like red ones, though these white ones are super cute!

Re: If you had your choice of colors, which one would you choose my brother

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Black squirrels are more common in Canada than in the US, except for Michigan.

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure there's more than one -- I used to see one over near the Kennedy School about ten years ago, another on Lowell Street about 7 years ago (when I moved away from there) which was definitely a juvenile at the time, and another juvenile at the Morrison street/Cedar junction about 5 years ago. I'd say there's some squirrel genetics at work here in the local population!

[pluggz01.livejournal.com]

i've never seen a white squirrel before... its kinda cute =]

[obie119.livejournal.com]

Enjoy them while they last - they're easy pickings for the local hawks...poor things have no camoflauge!

[tesho.livejournal.com]

They have plenty of camouflage in the snow, not to mention plenty of safety what with all of us hoarding around it with our cameras and camera-phones.

[kidsmokes.livejournal.com]

My roommate: "Oh I see him all the time! I call him snowflake in my head!"

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

I saw my first white squirrel on Hancock Street on ArtBeat day, 2002. I saw that one a few times in the vicinity of Hancock & Summer.

I saw another one on the bike trail, 2005 or 2006. I'm so thrilled they're still around (if not the same squirrels, their relatives or descendents...)