Remember these two squirrels?
On a previous post, I said that these animals were hybrids between Eurasian red squirrels and North American Eastern gray squirrels, which are an introduced species in the United Kingdom.
I said that the squirrel in the top photo had been a confirmed hybrid, and because the other squirrel happened to be black, it was suggested that it was a hybrid between a melanistic gray squirrel and red squirrel.
Well, I was pulling your leg.
I’ve had one person check out the Wikipedia page on red squirrels and inform me that the gray one was actually a Eurasian red squirrel in its winter pelt. Though becoming rarer in the British Isles, red squirrels are still quite wide-ranging animals, and they vary greatly in color throughout their range and throughout the year.
The black squirrel isn’t even a gray squirrel or a red squirrel.
It is a melanistic Abert’s squirrel (Sciurus aberti), which is a species native to the southern Rockies.
Long-time readers know that I’m somewhat prone to pulling pranks.
And I like to keep you on your toes…
[…] Please do not cite this post as fact. I merely wrote it as a prank. Please go to this post to find o… […]
Is chervilmeadow a prank?
No.
When will we ever know whether to believe you again, retrieverman. You made fools of us all… you little devil!
It’s just a prank, Pete. Nothing to get bent up about.
I hope the word “prank” is not a misspelling of some rude American euphemism? Of course “Kathy” sounds suspiciously from the “prank” department. How clever of this life form to utilise a common anglo saxon name to disguise a sinister reality..!
I meant prank, as in P-R-A-N-K. No more. No less. But that was very clever of you to read something else into my post.