Red-tailed black squirrel

[Lloyd]

Today, for the second time, I've seen a black squirrel with a red, bushy tail running around the neighbourhood.  Whether it's possibly a red squirrel and a black squirrel mix (we have both in our area) or it just happens to have an extremely light-coloured tail is hard to say. One thing is for sure, it really is quite comical to see.

[christie]

I also saw one like that in high park.

[Dr. John]

I'm guessing that the squirrel you saw was a colour variant, not an interspecies cross. The black squirrels we see are themselves a phase of the eastern gray squirrel. We have a regular in our backyard with a rusty tail and back. We have another with a tail with a white tip. In various parks I've seen fully rust coloured versions and there are some fully white squirrels on the grounds of Queen St. Mental Health Centre (now called the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health). The white squirrels aren't albinos (their eyes are regular). There are some towns that use their white squirrels as a sort of calling card: http://www.whitesquirrels.ca/

-John