Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!princeton!phoenix!pucc!0402909
From: 0402909@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Henry Horn)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Black Squirrels
Message-ID: <4400@pucc.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 3 Feb 88 15:48:51 GMT
References: <166700003@uiucdcsb>
Reply-To: 0402909@pucc.Princeton.EDU
Organization: Princeton University, NJ
Lines: 22
Disclaimer: Author bears full responsibility for contents of this article


Bill Smith:
>Where I went to high school in Indiana, there are two towns separated by maybe
>5 miles.  In both of these towns there are "Black Squirrels".  They are
>smaller than normal squirrels and are not found in any of the surronding
>areas of Indiana.  When I talked to some of my friends in the area they
>said that the squirrels are descendants of squirrels imported a long time ago.
 
Princeton, in New Jersey, also has a black squirrel population,
known to have been imported from Canada by the wife of one of the
University presidents.  She kept a menagerie, and at some point
many of the animals were released.  The squirrels here may have
come from Brittish Columbia, and I believe these pocket
populations have been investigated in the scientific literature
due to the current interest in modes of speciation.
 
>I would like to find out where they came from.  What kind of resources are
>there to help me find out what part of the world the squirrels are native?
 
If you wish, I will try to find some more information about the
Princeton squirrels on campus.  Try looking in some of the annual
biological citation indices under squirrels, and crossreference
whatever you find with words like "black", "isolated", etc.