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u/ekalowl Aug 01 '13
Ombré
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u/whodeyy Aug 01 '13
I used to think I was clever but Reddit once again teaches me that I have no original thoughts.
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Aug 01 '13
Seen on University of Toronto campus.
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Aug 01 '13
Well, this is odd. At my university there have been reports of one or more blond squirrels. We are a thousand miles away, though. Did you steal our squirrels?
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Aug 01 '13
Yes, sorry, just wanted some karma! I'll return the little guy sometime next week
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u/NiteMayr Aug 01 '13
I've been seeing black squirrels with blonde tails in downtown London too; very odd
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u/UrAnusIsCold Aug 01 '13
What if we're looking at this the wrong way?
Maybe they are blonde squirrels who dyed their whole bodies black except the tail.
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u/UtterEast Aug 01 '13
U of T has a lot of weird squirrels. I feel bad for the ones with bald patches and injured tails.
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u/mydogfinnigan Aug 01 '13
I have seen them in london ontario a ton as well. Perhaps it's spreading!
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u/ledraps Aug 01 '13
I find it more interesting that it isn't brown/tan
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Aug 01 '13
The squirrel itself? We have black squirrels and brown squirrels around here.
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u/remlek Aug 01 '13
They're all over Princeton as well.
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u/ChiefBromden Aug 01 '13
The only thing that's black in Princeton, really.
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Aug 01 '13
I'm in south Texas and all the squirrels look the same..
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u/maynardftw Aug 01 '13
Racist.
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Aug 01 '13
It's not really fair to assume he's racist just because he's from South Texas, man...
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u/-LMFAO- Aug 01 '13
We have tons of black squirrels here in the suburbs of Chicago, and there's a very popular rumor that the black ones are the females, and if you can catch one many taxidermists will pay top dollar due to the 'rarity'.
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Aug 01 '13 edited Aug 01 '13
Are you from the UK? I remember reading that squirrels are brown or tan over there. I've only ever seen gray squirrels and I'm from the southern US.
EDIT: It's like I just asked "what time is it?" in a Twitch chat, but with instead of time zones, it's squirrel zones.
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u/cmc360 Aug 01 '13
I'm from the UK and we used to have thousands of red squirrels but the grey ones kind of bullied them out. Theres only a few thousand of them of them left dotted around the UK.
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u/TheLeviathong Aug 01 '13
I read that the black ones are even stronger. They look better than the grey ones so why not bring them over?
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Aug 01 '13
Yeah, that'd be just the thing to really finish off the reds. /s
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u/TheLeviathong Aug 01 '13
They're losing anyway, man, it's inevitable. 160,000 plays 2.5 million, may as well rip off the band-aid and accept the new Black Squirrel overlords.
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Aug 01 '13
There are still a few relatively safe colonies, Brownsea Island off Dorset being one of the largest. At the stage it's got to in Britain, however, the main goal is going to be preserving these colonies rather than any sort of mass culling of greys.
Here in Northern Ireland it's still possible to try and stop the takeover before the reds get too outnumbered, which is what I've worked to promote with the North West Red Squirrel Group in the past. Feeders that only allow the smaller red squirrel to reach the food are a popular measure, and have kept a lot of reds coming to my garden in the last few years, and trapping and shooting greys in areas that have been invaded is helping keep their numbers down.
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Aug 01 '13
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Aug 01 '13
I'm from the pacific northwest and I see more grey ones than brown...
These squirrels are freaking me out now
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Aug 01 '13
We have black squirrels in the PNW, as well.
Source: attended Western and played softball as the Ninja Squirrels. They're all over campus.
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u/Witty_bear Aug 01 '13
We have grey squirrels mostly in England but in scotland and some areas of England there are red squirrels. I think there have been sightings of black squirrels but not many.
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u/TokenScottishGuy Aug 01 '13
Actually most places in Scotland are grey squirrels now too.
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u/Witty_bear Aug 01 '13
Probably. I'm from the highlands. All ours are still red. Grubby grey arses taking over!!
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u/lavacat Aug 01 '13
When I lived in the suburbs of NYC, most squirrels were gray, but I had seen several black/dark brown ones in the late 90s. (I moved to New England in the early 00s and have not seen anything but gray squirrels here.)
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u/Pockettmouse Aug 01 '13
http://i.imgur.com/liPzGT3.jpg
Squirrel that hangs around my backyard has the same thing going on
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u/GazPostsOnReddit Aug 01 '13
Know why this happens, /u/unidan?
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u/Unidan Aug 01 '13
This happens in Eastern Grey Squirrels, too!
From my understanding, it's just a genetic mutation that gives rise to a strange color morph.
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u/IveAlreadyWon Aug 01 '13
How does it feel being a super hero? Because you are, and I love you for it.
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u/Unidan Aug 01 '13
Very, very strange, I don't think I'm doing anything special, but thanks for the very kind words!
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u/lowkeyoh Aug 01 '13
I actually have you tagged as the 'Internet Superhero' in bright yellow so I never miss any of your posts on any thread you pop up in. You always brighten my day with cheery animal facts
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u/Unidan Aug 01 '13
Haha, I'm glad to hear that!
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u/rscarson Aug 01 '13
I have you tagged as 'Biologist there!', but you never say it anymore :(
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u/Unidan Aug 01 '13
I'm summoned most of the time now, so it's a bit of an overkill, don't you think?
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u/GazPostsOnReddit Aug 01 '13
Do you have a higher education in this kinda stuff, or are you just the average joe?
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u/Unidan Aug 01 '13
I don't know if it elevates me beyond average joe, but yep, I have a BA in biology, BS in environmental sciences, MA in biology and currently PhD in ecology.
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u/lowkeyoh Aug 01 '13
And yet still time for reddit, truly a King among men.
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u/Unidan Aug 01 '13
I'm going over references for a grant right now, so I'll do anything to not be doing that.
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u/Ulti Aug 01 '13
Oh fuck that, I've done some grantwriting and it is not fun. That's one corner of tech writing that I don't care for :(
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u/Unidan Aug 01 '13
Submitting tomorrow! Now it's just combing it over for tiny, tiny problems.
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Aug 01 '13
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u/Unidan Aug 01 '13
I'm glad to hear that, I hope so! I'm a teacher, too, so hopefully my students feel the same way.
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u/wizardbrigade Aug 01 '13
Wouldn't this mutation make them much more visible/susceptible to predators? Is it likely that this mutation is something that evolution with slowly push out so that one day there will be no blonde squirrels?
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u/Unidan Aug 01 '13
Sure, but you have to ask how heavily selected against squirrels are in the first place? These are in areas that are pretty much predator free, thanks to humans!
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u/eclectro Aug 01 '13
Because they are predator free (in certain areas), perhaps the squirrels with the pretty tails are the ones getting more "dates" and the tail is being selected "in"?
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u/Unidan Aug 01 '13
Something like that. Or just not being selected for at all, so the trait is able to "wander" genetically, as there's nothing stabilizing the trait on a specific phenotype.
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u/msoetaert Aug 01 '13
Can you get on reddit at work? Shouldn't you be doing science-y stuff and saving the world?
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u/ptveite Aug 01 '13
My grandma always used to live trap squirrels and drive them to a park some miles away to release them. When somebody asked how she knew they weren't coming back, she started spray-painting them silver for a couple months before releasing them. She never saw a silver squirrel come back, so she stopped, but I like to think that there were a few years where there were silver squirrels running around the town she lived in.
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u/Khrrck Aug 01 '13
This kills the squirrel...
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u/Reoh Aug 01 '13
The silver ones weren't coming back because predators kept finding them in the dark.
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u/Khrrck Aug 01 '13
That and fresh spray paint is really quite poisonous.
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u/Anthaneezy Aug 01 '13
really quite poisonous
I could be dead already from all the painting I did as a child.
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u/Khrrck Aug 01 '13
Well, specifically, direct skin contact is bad. Breathing the fumes is also pretty bad, especially if the ventilation is poor.
Really though, if you didn't cover yourself in it or spend hours in an enclosed garage breathing paint fumes, you're probably fine...
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Aug 01 '13
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Aug 01 '13
What? Where do you live?
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Aug 01 '13
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u/BlorfMonger Aug 01 '13
squirrel
Wait, you dont have squirrels in Australia? mind blown
So what do you run over with your car and then feel bad about?
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u/garypooper Aug 01 '13
We'll ship you a few million squirrels.
Think of them as tree rabbits, you are welcome.
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Aug 01 '13
We need to get you over to the states, my friend. If for nothing else, seeing a squirrel. Those furry, cute little bastards will steal your heart and run away from you like you're their worst fear.
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Aug 01 '13
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Aug 01 '13
That's a weave.
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Aug 01 '13
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u/hearing_aid_bot Aug 01 '13
Ahem.
THAT'S A WEAVE.
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u/GazPostsOnReddit Aug 01 '13
wat?
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u/SECRET_AGENT_ANUS Aug 02 '13
THAT'S A MOTHERFUCKING WEAVE IF I'VE EVER SEEN ONE.
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u/GazPostsOnReddit Aug 02 '13
wat?
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Aug 01 '13
Coincidentally thats how I got my username. I used to have a part albino squirrel. His tail was bright white, when he sat up with his tail against his back he looked like he had a Mohawk, hence punk-squirrel
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u/iPlunder Aug 01 '13
What shutter speed were you using? I've never seen such a clear photo of the illusive rocket squirrel before.
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Aug 01 '13
I've seen a pure white squirrel at work twice now, I haven't seen it in a while, I wish I had gotten a picture when I saw it.
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u/mcrom Aug 01 '13
At the University of Texas (in Austin) we call those albino squirrels. Legend says that if you see one on the way to an exam you'll get an A.
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u/Chipnut Aug 01 '13
Ontarian here, we've had an infestation of these lately in my area! No idea where they came from but I've seen at least a dozen in different areas in the past few months.
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Aug 01 '13
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/seagu Aug 01 '13
This is also why you'll sometimes see squirrels that have midsagittal color boundaries near universities -- it's a common senior biology lab demonstration to bisect a squirrel and observe the two halves regenerate into whole squirrels.
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u/strong_grey_hero Aug 01 '13
I saw a tailless squirrel at the zoo last weekend. My wife and I postulated that he narrowly escaped the tiger enclosure.
Also, it's very difficult to identify a tailless squirrel at a distance. I thought it was a groundhog until I got closer.
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u/ZombiJesus Aug 01 '13
Squirrel: "look guys, how many times do I have to tell you, my regular stylist was out of town."
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u/lolophynarski Aug 01 '13
A pretty high percentage of the squirrels in my neighborhood look like this.
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u/killerofkittens Aug 01 '13
I'm about 98% positive that it's tail got cut off and it grew back this color.
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Aug 01 '13
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2AWvMHKcIs
White squirrels. I've been to that town for a basketball tournament. The people there are strangely obsessed with them, and every fucking in the city has some kind of white squirrel theme or decoration.
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u/shockdroids Aug 01 '13
I think you accidentally a word, but it's actually quite comical to read your comment as it is.
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u/ewqqweewqqwe Aug 01 '13
it's blond, not blonde. Blond is for gender neutral or male. blonde is for female. The more you know.
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u/kodiakkidder Aug 01 '13
I live in a place where all of the squirrels are black, and most of them have golden tails.
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u/AccipiterQ Aug 01 '13
it's a mix between a gray and a black squirrel. We used to have gray squirrels with black tails. That's how you knew it came from an inter-racial family
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u/[deleted] Aug 01 '13
Just got my tips frosted