the squirrels in toronto---
 

we see these little fellas in Ireland but not as many as we have seen in toronto. are they called " black squirrels" as we only have the red and grey variety. my daughter was fascinated with them in queen's park while we were out walking, killing off our last hours before our night-flight home. ended up in the police museum as a result of being nosey on this walk-- loved this museum!!

carlow, the squirrels in NYC are grey and black also. The red ones they say died off because they were so fragile, they would die from fright ...
Not sure if that is true :)

The grey squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis, occurs in both a grey and a black morph in southern Ontario. Grey or black, they are the same species. Homo sapiens come in different colours too! Grey squirrels occur in Europe as a result of introduction by humans.

We also have an animal that we call "red squirrel", Tamiasciurus hudsonicus. They are more common further north but I occasionally see them here in Oakville. The "red squirrel" that you know is a slightly different animal, Sciurus vulgaris, which at a quick glance differs in that they have longer ears than "our" red squirrel.

Why Gavin, that is more than I ever thought I would know about squirrels! Thank you ~

now tell me, how did you know all this? :)

probably from them getting into our Attics!!

Toronto has lots of habitat for wild animals.

Racoons and skunks live in large numbers virtually everywhere in Toronto.

I've seen a red fox on a pathway, a coyote cross a busy intersection and a couple of deer on an island on a major expressway offramp.

Canada geese live in a car park every year next to the office where I worked while hundreds lived in Markham virtually all year around.

I saw a golden eagle one day from my 16th floor apartment. With it's 6 foot wingspan, it needed only a couple of beats as it cruised up the Don Valley Expressway.

Toronto can also lay claim to a more unusual species of squirrel - there are some albino squirrels living in the park at Queen and Strachan, as well as on the grounds of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health at Queen and Ossington. The first time one of our patients at the Centre reported seeing a pure white squirrel, I think they decided to increase his medication :) but eventually they were noticed by, shall we say, slightly more credible observers. The area around the park has become a bit gentrified and I believe the residents would like to claim exclusive ownership of the albino squirrels, but in fact when I started working at the Centre 23 years ago, the original mated pair had already been sighted.
We've also seen coyotes in our residential neighbourhood just north of the Beaches; I'm glad my cats don't go outdoors. ((@))

When he was a student, a friend of mine was asked to show a visiting professor from a squirriel-less country (Australia, maybe?) around Trinity College (at U of T). As they were crossing some kind of square, the prof suddenly shrieked and practically leaped into my friend's arms. Turns out the professor thought the squirrels that were swarming the square were giant rats with furry tails. After he calmed down he said he couldn't figure out which was more terrifying: the giant rats, or the fact that everyone else wasn't bothered by them.

On a related (but furry) note, there was a great article in the Globe last Friday or Saturday (with some entertaining follow-up letters) about how the raccoon population is rubbing their paws with glee at the upcoming expansion of the "green bin" program (green bins are giant bins for compost).

I saw a museum exhibit a few years ago that used squirrels as an example of albinoism (no pigment) and melanox?xism (excess pigment). The squirrels with excess pigment looked black.

wow this info is just so cool---thanks peeps xxxx

Exter Ontario is the home of the world's only non-albino white squirrels.

http://www.whitesquirrels.ca/

Oops, I lied.

The last time I read about the white squirrels (18 months or so ago) Exeter made the claim for the only ones in the world.

I guess other white squirrel towns complained because I just checked out the website and now there is a list of other towns with the rodent claim to fame.

Marionville - Missouri
Brevard - North Carolina
Olney -Illinois
Kenton -Tennessee
Northern Keys - Florida
Charlotte - North Carolina