In Issue 235 we mentioned briefly the appearance in Pilrig Park of an unusual black squirrel. Nearby residents have named it Zorro. Local man Pav Verity contacted us today with baffling complexities to this interesting development.
The European squirrel is usually dark or near-black (as I have personally observed in Switzerland, Italy, Greece etc.), so it is red squirrels – like red-haired Scots – which are unusual for having evolved to meet the lower-light conditions of the North.
So is Zorro a ‘red’ squirrel in the normal ‘black’ colour? But we have grey squirrels in Edinburgh not red ones, so is he (or she, let us not be sexist):
- unusual in being both a black ‘red’ squirrel in a place where there are no red squirrels?
- or a black ‘grey’ squirrel?
Scope for some zoological research! A little Internet delving throws up this:
The spread of the black squirrel across the counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Hertfordshire in the UK has inspired much general interest. Considering the critical role of the MC1R in coat color variation in so many species, this gene appeared to be the ideal candidate to begin investigating the genetic basis of melanism in the gray squirrel.
Aha! So is Zorra/Zorra an English immigrant to Edinburgh? (Should fit in quite well, then.)
Does anyone have a photo of the creature? Sending it to the authors of the above paper could clarify whether the black variation has spread a long way beyond Hertfordshire.
[Image: Wikimedia Commons.]
