wsmith@uiucdcsb.cs.uiuc.edu (02/03/88)
I hope this is close enough to a "bio" question so that someone may be able to help me find an answer. Where I went to high school in Indiana, there are two towns separated by maybe 5 miles. In both of these towns there are "Black Squirrels". They are smaller than normal squirrels and are not found in any of the surronding areas of Indiana. When I talked to some of my friends in the area they said that the squirrels are descendants of squirrels imported a long time ago. I would like to find out where they came from. What kind of resources are there to help me find out what part of the world the squirrels are native? Bill Smith pur-ee!uiucdcs!wsmith wsmith@a.cs.uiuc.edu
0402909@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Henry Horn) (02/03/88)
Bill Smith: >Where I went to high school in Indiana, there are two towns separated by maybe >5 miles. In both of these towns there are "Black Squirrels". They are >smaller than normal squirrels and are not found in any of the surronding >areas of Indiana. When I talked to some of my friends in the area they >said that the squirrels are descendants of squirrels imported a long time ago. Princeton, in New Jersey, also has a black squirrel population, known to have been imported from Canada by the wife of one of the University presidents. She kept a menagerie, and at some point many of the animals were released. The squirrels here may have come from Brittish Columbia, and I believe these pocket populations have been investigated in the scientific literature due to the current interest in modes of speciation. >I would like to find out where they came from. What kind of resources are >there to help me find out what part of the world the squirrels are native? If you wish, I will try to find some more information about the Princeton squirrels on campus. Try looking in some of the annual biological citation indices under squirrels, and crossreference whatever you find with words like "black", "isolated", etc.
robert@artecon.UUCP (Robert C. Kunciov) (02/04/88)
There is a variety of squirrel whose range extends from southern Canada to some
of the northern US border states. It is primarily black (with gray mixed
pelage) and smaller than the average gray squirrel.
It may be _Sciurus nigra_, but you would have to check with the nearest
museum of natural history. Quite possibly this pocket of squirrels is left
over from part of their normal extended range.
--
= Robert Kuncio {sdcsvax|hplabs|ncr-sd|hpfcla|ihnp4}!hp-sdd!artecon!rck =
= "Will you walk a little faster?" said a whiting to a snail, =
= "There's a porpoise close behind us, and he's treading on my tail." =
= Lewis Carroll, _Alice in Wonderland_ =rising@utzoo.uucp (Jim Rising) (02/04/88)
In the east there are two kinds of squirels in the genus Sciurus, the
Gray Squirrel (S. carolinensis) and the Fox Squirrel (S. niger). Both
are polymorphic in some populations, with a varying proportion of the
indiviuals being black. As I understand it, the type specimen of the
Fox Squirrel was a black one--hence the Latin name.
In the Gray Squirrel, the frequency of the black squirrels increases
latitudinally, with the black ones predominating at this latitude
(Toronto). Black Gray Squirrels from eastern Canada have been introduced
in various places, including Stanley Park in Vancouver, B.C.--but they
are not native to the west.
At any given latitude, Fox Squirrels are larger than Gray Squirrels. Thus,
black Gray Squirrels may have been introduced into those towns in Indiana
(and also Princeton, N.J.). These would be smaller than the Fox Squirrels
that are more commonly associated with towns, at least in the mid-west
(i.e. Indiana).
Audubon, incidentally, has a handsome figure of Fox Squirrels, showing
some of the variation in pellage color, in his (and Bachman's) Quadrupeds
of N.A.
--Jim Rising
--
Name: Jim Rising
Mail: Dept. Zoology, Univ. Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1
UUCP: {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!risingsnell@utzoo.uucp (snell) (02/04/88)
In article <4400@pucc.Princeton.EDU> >>Where I went to high school in Indiana, there are two towns separated by maybe >>5 miles. In both of these towns there are "Black Squirrels". They are >>smaller than normal squirrels and are not found in any of the surronding >>areas of Indiana. When I talked to some of my friends in the area they >>said that the squirrels are descendants of squirrels imported a long time ago. Though possible, there is no reason to believe this. The black squirrels are almost certainly one of the dark (melanistic) morphs of the common Grey Squirrel _Sciurus carolinensis_. The larger grey ones are almost certainly Fox Squirrels _Sciurus niger_. Though _S. carolinensis_ is grey or dark-brown, or black, within any particular geographic locality there is NO difference in their size. (Grey Squirrels vary considerably in size over their geographic range, with the ones in the Florida Keys being very tiny indeed compared to the northern variety near Winnipeg-- all are the same species though.) The melanistic morphs become exceedingly rare to non-existent south of a general latitude near southern Pennsylvannia. Further north, as at Toronto, the melanistic forms are just as common as the grey morph (and there are no Fox Squirrels here, either). > >Princeton, in New Jersey, also has a black squirrel population, >known to have been imported from Canada by the wife of one of the >University presidents. She kept a menagerie, and at some point >many of the animals were released. This may or may not be true, but there is no reason to believe that this hypothetical event was in anyway responsible for introducing black morph Grey Squirrels in this region. The two dark morphs and the greys have been present throughout these northern regions since at least the time of Audubon (early 1800's). >The squirrels here may have >come from Brittish Columbia, If black-morph Grey Squirrels came from British Columbia, which I certainly doubt, they themselves were derived from a founded population. The species was introduced in Vancouver, and is doing nicely in Stanley Park. The natural range just barely makes it into Saskatchewan, extending west from Maine and New Brunswick. >and I believe these pocket >populations have been investigated in the scientific literature >due to the current interest in modes of speciation. This is also not true, though I would love to have a reference to such a published study on the Grey Squirrel _Sciurus carolinensis_. > >>I would like to find out where they came from. What kind of resources are >>there to help me find out what part of the world the squirrels are native? They are endemic to the area you have found them in. >If you wish, I will try to find some more information about the >Princeton squirrels on campus. Try looking in some of the annual >biological citation indices under squirrels, and crossreference >whatever you find with words like "black", "isolated", etc. Whatever you do, do not do a computer search using the word "black." If you have to pay a few cents per citation, you will have a bill in the many many thousands of dollars, and virtually none of it will relate to squirrels. -- Name: Richard Snell Mail: Dept. Zoology, Univ. Toronto Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1 UUCP: {allegra,decvax,ihnp4,linus,pyramid,yetti,utai}!utzoo!snell
jeffp@phred.UUCP (Jeff Parke) (02/08/88)
>>... In both of these towns there are "Black Squirrels". They are >>smaller than normal squirrels and are not found in any of the surronding >Princeton, in New Jersey, also has a black squirrel population, >... >come from Brittish Columbia, and I believe these pocket >>I would like to find out where they came from. What kind of resources are >>there to help me find out what part of the world the squirrels are native? In Davenport, Iowa there is a substantial population of black squirrels. I grew up there with the notion that they were originally imported from China by a fellow named Palmer, who also founded the Palmer Chiropractic School there. You might try writing that institution to see if this is true. -- uiucuxc!tikal!phred!jeffp {Jeff Parke} Genie : JEFFP DELPHI : JEFFPARKE Disclaimer: Random coincidence finds official policy here.