Today I was driving in Newtown Square and came upon a black squirrel. This is the second location in Delaware County that I have seen black squirrels. The other is in the development behind the Stoney Creek Shopping Center just off of Baltimore Pike, real close to our office in Springfield.
My curiosity got the better of me, so I looked up black squirrels on Wikipedia and found out that they were the dominant group of squirrels before the arrival of the settlers, way back in North America. But then their habitat, the thick black forests, began to disappear. With the removal of the dense forests the black squirrels became more vulnerable in the open and their numbers began to dwindle. The gray squirrels, which have also been around for a long time, then began to dominate, as they blended in better with the scenery of areas with fewer trees. Fortunately there are pockets of black squirrels that still remain.
In addition to there being pockets of black squirrels in Delaware County and other areas in the Northeastern States, they apparently still remain in the Midwest, in parts of Eastern Canada, and even in the UK and Sweden.
My photos are not the best since they are from a distance. And knowing that gray squirrels usually run when people get close, I figured, just take a few long distance shots in this photo op.
Have you seen any black squirrels in your neck of the woods?
Black Squirrels In Delaware County PA
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