Black Squirrel vs. Brown Squirrel

[Bobl]

When I was younger, and I am old. Squirrels actually hibernated in Detroit. You would never see one in the winter. Now, they do not hibernate and you see them all winter long. Lot of Geese also stay all winter. Back then you never saw any in the winter. Global warming?

Interesting post. I think we are about the same age.
Canada Geese were actually thought to be in danger of extinction in the late 1950s. Apparently, DDT was wreaking havoc with their eggs.
Now, they have abundant food and shelter. No need to fly south?
Our neighborhood squirrels still build their large nests in the trees, and spend much of the winter there. Some, however, seem to be semi tame, and take advantage of the many people who feed them while attempting to feed the birds all winter.
I think we are looking at adaptation rather then any global warming that may be happening.

[Zacha341]

I live in the Wayne State/ New Center area and they've started to populate our area over the next two years. Before that they were mainly downtown! LOL!

Just throwing this out there. Has anybody noticed that the black squirrels are slowly moving over to the west side? Or are black squirrels only an east-side thing? It seems I've seen more and more black squirrels around Hamtramck recently. Or am I just nuts. [[Probably more likely!)

[Zacha341]

ROTFL!

Just saw a news bulletin that talked about "White Squirrel Flight" as thousands of White Squirrels are fleeing in sheer panic over the movement of Black Squirrels into their turf.

[MrJones]

I always thought the black squirrels were just adolescent brown squirrels. That could be why they're more skiddish and playful.
I've NEVER seen a white squirrel, though I have seen gray/white.

[Jimaz]

In the late 60s Black Squirrels inhabited only the more densely forested northeast corner of Grant Park in Utica. Over the years they gradually displaced the native brown Fox Squirrels throughout the whole park. There are not many Fox Squirrels left today. I'd heard that the Black Squirrels originally came from Canada but that might just be someone's guess.

The baby squirrel I found in the furnace flue last Spring was a Fox Squirrel.

Albino squirrels and non-albino white squirrels do exist too.

[Jimaz]

Squirrel fishing.

[Alley]

I have been seeing lot's of biracial squirrels lately--either black with brown tails, brown with black tails, or the complete freaks like the one that lives in my bushes. It has brown legs, a black front end and a brown hind end. At first I thought it was mange or rabies, but it is just a full, strange coat of hair. I'll try to get a picture.

[rustic]

The brown squirrels are better eatin. The black squirrels have less meat and are gamier.

[unclefrank]

All I see in Roseville now is the black ones

[eno]

Preserve stated "leave a mess, east through cardboard, mess up the throw rugs, Don't know how to get rid of them. "

Preserve

Try moth balls. I had unwanted racoons and squirrels about 10 years ago. I used a trap and attempted to remove them, but they kept coming back

I was told to try moth balls,and sure enough, they left within 3 days........its cheap too, no need to use a critter control agency........Jane

I had a couple of problems re. sharing space with wildlife. One was pigeons moving into an attic space thru a hole in the fascia. The other was a raccoon making a nest in a chimney. In each case we put moth balls in a small bath of ammonia. Maybe the moth balls work on their own but the combo with ammonia removed the wildlife the same day.

[mwilbert]

From when I was a kid until maybe 15 years ago there were no black squirrels in the University District area. I don't remember any grey ones either--they were all the big orangy-brown kind. Now I would say the black ones are predominant. I like both.

[reddog289]

I have noticed more black squirrels in Garden City, then in Wayne. I see them here. but Garden City has more.

[kathy2trips]

Seems like Eastsiders are every where these days!

[Nicodeme]

The black squirrels are just mutated versions of the ordinary eastern grey squirrel. Somewhere down the line, one turned melanistic, which means its fur turned black from having too much pigment. The same thing happens to many other animals. That's how we get black panthers, they're melanistic cougars or jaguars. That's also why we see some black squirrels with a grey tail, or vice versa.

With that said, I've noticed over the past, probably 6-7 years that the black ones have overtaken Royal Oak. Just last Saturday I saw 8 of them on a neighbor's lawn and 2 across the street. Never seen so many in one place, and all were black. I too have noticed that the ones that have gotten squished don't appear to be black.

In a book called Weird Michigan, I read that it was Kellogg who originally brought black squirrels to Michigan in the Battle Creek area to get rid of red squirrels. I guess they were being pests.

[12468_laing]

My dad had a garden in the back yard - closed off alley. He put a line of moth balls between the grass and the garden to keep the squirrels out. We were sitting on the back porch one day and saw a squirrel take a moth ball away in it's mouth!!

[exdetroiter]

Just saw a news bulletin that talked about "White Squirrel Flight" as thousands of White Squirrels are fleeing in sheer panic over the movement of Black Squirrels into their turf.

You need prayer and your brain needs to be cleansed of that disease known as prejudice.

[Danny]

Indeed black squirrels are quickly migrating to the West side of Detroit. More of them are in the Midtown Area. They are following the food and the people who had some food for them. It's just as a person feeding the bird-flu carring pigeons. The brown squirrels have to quickly gather some food and defend off the black squirrels in the process.

WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET.

I was wondering that the brown squirrels would be carrying " BROWNS ONLY" signs in the trees.

[eno]

The black squirrels are just mutated versions of the ordinary eastern grey squirrel. Somewhere down the line, one turned melanistic, which means its fur turned black from having too much pigment. The same thing happens to many other animals. That's how we get black panthers, they're melanistic cougars or jaguars. That's also why we see some black squirrels with a grey tail, or vice versa.

With that said, I've noticed over the past, probably 6-7 years that the black ones have overtaken Royal Oak. Just last Saturday I saw 8 of them on a neighbor's lawn and 2 across the street. Never seen so many in one place, and all were black. I too have noticed that the ones that have gotten squished don't appear to be black.

In a book called Weird Michigan, I read that it was Kellogg who originally brought black squirrels to Michigan in the Battle Creek area to get rid of red squirrels. I guess they were being pests.

I recently saw a CBC news story about the decline of the red squirrels in England and measures to re-establish them by eliminating the native American grey squirrels.

[Boo Stinking Boo]

While living on the westside in the 80s and 90's we only had brown squirrles, not I live in East Village and only see the black ones. Yet, when I'm on the westide now I see both which I thought was weird. Call it a class issue but I always thought the black ones were better, just saying

[elganned]

Canada Geese were actually thought to be in danger of extinction in the late 1950s. Apparently, DDT was wreaking havoc with their eggs.
Now, they have abundant food and shelter. No need to fly south?

One of the things that happened with the Canada Geese is, because they were thought to be in danger, people were robbing nests and raising goslings in captivity, then returning them to the wild.

Migrating is a learned behavior, and these people-raised geese had no one to teach them when the time for migrating came. So they don't migrate; they don't know how. And their offspring don't know how, either, because their parents can't teach them. So we have a lot of non-migrating geese. As long as they can find food and unfrozen open water, it doesn't seem to harm them very much.

There was an interesting movie a few years back [["Fly Away Home") that discusses the situation. In the movie, a young girl leads a group of geese on their first migration using an ultralight aircraft. After that, they know the route and can do it on their own--and teach their offspring.

[mkhopper]

I've started seeing black squirrels in Redford as well over the past few years.
The odd thing however is that they only seem to be south of Five Mile. Anywhere north of there and all you'll see are red [[brown) squirrels.

[Trumpeteer]

You need prayer and your brain needs to be cleansed of that disease known as prejudice.

Oh Good god it's just a F..ing JOKE!!

[carterjan48]

I live in Roseville and we have three white squirrels in the neighborhood.

[buildingsofdetroit]

We have almost nothing but black squirrels near Grand Boulevard and Vernor. Brown ones are a rarity.

[Ocean2026]

Starting in the late 50's lighter colored squirrels started leaving the city, while the black ones multiplied. lol
Its nice that Detroit has them - we have very few here but do have some possums- which can be fun.