The White Squirrels of Shelton
By Ray Bendici | Category: Cryptozoology, Damned Investigations
The Damned Story: Often heard at my home in Shelton from first-time visitors: “Oooh look! A white squirrel right in your backyard!”
My response: “Yay. They’re still rats.”
Okay, I should be more excited to have something that’s considered somewhat unusual living a few feet from my house — when I first moved to Shelton, I remember the first time I saw one of these so-called “ghost squirrels” run across the street, I almost drove off the road. But now, after these critters spend the day tearing up my lawn, chewing on my kids’ toys (wiffle balls, in particular, seem to be a favorite) and leaving a plethora of picked-clean pine cones in their wake, it’s hard to appreciate them for the “special” vermin they are.
Well, from what I can tell, they’re not so special. They’re a variation of the common Eastern gray squirrel, with populations in Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, upstate New York and even in North Carolina, where in the town of Brevard, they have have an annual white squirrel festival.
I’m not buying a ticket any time soon . . .
These creatures have been spotted in various sections of Shelton, and more recently, have spread (not unlike a plague) into Stratford. As you might expect (hope), they don’t have overly large populations because their bright fur makes them an easy target for hawks and other raptors.
A quick note: The squirrels spotted in my backyard and in other places in Shelton are not albino — it’s hard to tell from these pictures, but they have black eyes, not the red eyes characteristic of albinism.
Our Damned Experience: These photos were taken in my backyard and I can pretty much go outside on any given day and snap pictures of these annoying buggers. This particular squirrel I photographed is about a year or two old, and lives with a pack of gray ones high up in a pine tree. Over the past ten years that I’ve lived here, there always seems to be one or two white ones around, mixed in and living in racial harmony with their gray brethren.
If You Go: You’re not coming to my house, damned or not!
However, I can’t stop you from cruising the Coram Road section of Shelton and taking a few of specimens home with you (please please please!), or even better, if one crosses the road in front of you, preparing it for early taxidermy with your car.
Ohhh Ray, I didn’t actually get around to reading this one till now. I’m cracking up!!!!
The only good squirrel is a dead squirrel!!!!
Wishing you and yours a 4 dead squirrel year!
We used to have 2 white squirrelss in my neighborhood in waterbury about 5 years ag.
the squirrels in waterbury are black. i was shocked.
This is awesome! When I was a child we had two white squirrels that lived in my street in Connecticut. And they clearly didn’t have read eyes. I’ll never forget sharing it to my class in 2nd grade, and my teacher thought I was nuts. She even brought it up to my mom when she came to pick me up. My mom just looked at her and said “Yeah, they’ve been there for years.”
Unfortunately it’s been years and they’re long gone. Haven’t seen them since the late 80′s.
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I live a few blocks from Shelton City Hall and I see lots of black squirrels and white squirrels. The first time I noticed a white one was in that old grave yard on Long Hill Ave just before the Route 8 overpass. It spooked me, for a second I thought it was the ghost of Bullwinkle’s little buddy.
I too live on Coram Road and see them on my deck all the time. I have been here 11 years now and we seem to get new white squirrels every year or so. There was a very big white male 4-5 years ago with a very distinctive Roman nose but I have not seen him in a while.
i have seen then at rockwell park bristol ct and off e albert st torrington ct
In West Hartford there are some black squirrels tipped with silver. Very pretty.
i lived on toas st. in the coram rd section and they were all over the place. If you go where all the Rhode Island streets and drive around you’ll see one every now and then.
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You’re correct that the white squirrels are not albinos – rather, they have a different genetic condition known as leucism (pronounced “luke-ism”). Leucistic animals display a reduction/absence of all pigments, not just melanin (black), with the usual exception of the pigment cells in the eyes – leading to a white animal with dark eyes, much like this squirrel.
Opposignly, there is a phenotype (gene expression) that involves an increase in dark pigments, known as melanism. This causes a darker-colored/black variant of the animal, such as the black squirrel that lives in my yard (in Easton, CT).
I have never seen a white squirrel, only grey ones. One of them used to come in my bedroom window and sit on my bedside table staring at me until I got up and fed her. One used to come over and take peanuts out of my hand. Squirrels are quite friendly if you are nice to them and talk to them in a calm and friendly tone of voice.
So if the white ones are friendly, just be nice to them and feed them.