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Sunday, September 23, 2007

Black Squirrels in Cobble Hill?

McBrooklyn sighted this black squirrel in Cobble Hill this past Sunday. The grapevine says that they've traveled south from Canada -- a few years ago they were sighted in Westchester, then the Bronx, now Brooklyn.

A Cobble Hill resident said don't believe what anybody says, there are plenty of black squirrels in the neighborhood.

Even more rare than the black squirrel is the white squirrel, said to be 1 in 100,000. A correspondent to Curbed says that there is one in Prospect Park. Any sightings?

(In 1972, Marysville, Kansas
passed legislation protecting the black squirrel and making it the Official Town Mascot. It has the freedom to trespass on all City property, immunity from traffic regulations and the first pick of all black walnuts growing within the city. The fine for harming one is $25.)

Photos by MK Metz

9 comments:

  1. White squirrels are common in Brevard, NC. The White Squirrel Research Institute is there.
    http://whitesquirrelinstitute.com/

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  2. Love to see one! I have possums and raccoons here in Mill Basin. One of the raccoons ate part of my roof and thanked me by crapping on it.

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  3. Our friend had a raccoon walk through her living room -- in Brooklyn Heights. Got in through the fire escape.

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  4. Uh oh, the black squirrels are moving in.
    Time to move to Rockland County ...

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  5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  6. There's a colony of these squirrels in Brooklyn Heights around Middagh and Hicks Streets.

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  7. I've lived on Warren Street for 5 years and we've had 4 or 5 of them living in our yard the entire time.

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  8. The Washington Post said a sizable population started when "18 Canadian squirrels were released at the National Zoo during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt." See (remove the hard returns):
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
    content/article/2005/05/18/
    AR2005051802251.html

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