Strange tree rat in NE Ohio.

[.45Guy]

All I've ever seen in our area are fox and reds, and the occasional flying tree rat that comes down the chimney. We also have the coal black tree rats about an hour and a half south in the Dover/ New Philidelphia area. This thing has me thrown for a loop though. Size and fur appear like a fox, but it is much darker... Cross breeding perhaps?

 

[.45Guy]

Standard NE Ohio tree rat for comparison.

 

[Spammy_H]

I think it's related to Robert Downey Jr.'s character in Tropic Thunder - dyed his skin black to get into the role.

 

[Skyshot]

I think its a fox squirrel, in Tennessee we have some black ones and some that are black and red or black with white feet or faces. I think the foxes can have a multitude of colors. If I ever kill one of the white faced ones I'm gonna mount him they really look cool!

 

[SPW1]

Yes, it is a fox squirrel, just a little darker than average. We have some around here like that too.

 

[.45Guy]

I'll be damned, that's the first dark one I've seen. Maybe the variation is showing up with the increased population as all the old hunters die off.

 

[cottswald]

I'd say that's an odd lookin one. If you found him hangin around areas where Fox Squirrel are predominant, that might be a clue. If you hunt on, or are near any public Widlife Areas, you might want to run it by a Ranger. They're always interested in that sort of thing and might have some additional information. Nice shot by the way!

 

[BCCL]

Maybe it's a grey squirrel trying to look younger?

 

[cottswald]

Maybe it's a grey squirrel trying to look younger?

"Just for Squirrels"??

Very much in fashion, or so I'm told.

 

[303tom]

We have lots of black squirrels around here, they ain`t nothing new here in the woods.

 

[303tom]

Here is a few pictures !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Graham_Red_Squirrel

 

[huntsman]

Strange tree rat in NE Ohio

I saw one in Jefferson a few weeks ago and did a double take, I decided it was a black phase fox squirrel.

 

[Flintknapper]

“Color Phase” Fox Squirrels are not at all unusual around here.

The ones we have are not truly “melanistic”….but kind of Salt and Pepper colored, though some look to be completely black.

I raised this little guy, after a terrible storm blew the nest down and no mother or siblings were found.

 

[heeler]

Too funny Flint!!
I once raised a baby Flying Squirrel that was blown out of a nest during a hard summer thunderstorm(remember those??).
I had him in a big cage in my room but because they are nocturnal he ate crunchy food and jumped around all night keeping me awake so I eventually paroled him back into the great outdoors once he was grown up enough to make it.
Saw him every once in a while but not often.

 

[303tom]

Any of us who live in rural area`s have raised more wild animals than we care to count, that`s a cute little tree rat you got there Flintnapper.

 

[Flintknapper]

^^^^^^^^^^^

Any of us who live in rural area`s have raised more wild animals than we care to count,

Yup!

 

[308win]

Around the Kent area they have the species of black squirrels. Could be a cross bred or could be a color phase fox although I have never seen one that dark. I grew up in an area in Illinois that had a sizeable population of white squirrels. They are in danger of being cross bred out of existance by the grays.

 

[Bobson]

Reminds me of a strange dark brown pigeon I always see hanging out with all the normal gray and white pigeons at work.

 

[.45Guy]

FWIW, this one was in Kirtland, a couple miles from Holden.

 

[RinkRat]

Oh hell

that's my cousin billy

he got himself some of that just for men hair-stuff to spiff up for mate-in season, I told him that wasn't his color, that darned goofy guy

 

[CSA 357]

the mississippi delta is full of them black and red, the black is a color fase of the red i have been told they are pretty!

 

[Ranger J]

The black phase of the fox squirrel is more common the further south you get. A woods I once hunted in Illinois didn't have any completely black ones but those with 'black trimmings' were not that rare.

RJ

 

[arcticap]

2 black phase grays

These are a couple of black phase gray squirrels that I felt fortunate to locate on public land in CT about a mile apart from each other, but at 80%-90% black with some dark brown present, they aren't nearly as uniformly black as the multitude of black phase ones that I saw in Eastern Ohio (on the way to Kent, Ohio) many years ago.
Not very many blackies in proportion to the population are located here. I did locate another one in a different part of the state but didn't harvest it.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Maybe the variation is showing up with the increased population as all the old hunters die off.

Or as more and more suburban areas eliminate hunting in adjacent open areas?

LD