I’d like to know what others think about this. I have two main questions, which I listed here, then described below with pictures.
How did these Eastern Grey Squirrels get reddish-brown patches, i.e. can grey squirrel breed with American Red Squirrels or is there another explanation?
What is the relationship between these two individuals? Are they siblings or courting or perhaps siblings also mate? I wish I could post the video but will try to describe with frame and words.
How did they get red patches?
Is it possible for Eastern Grey Squirrel to cross-breed with American Red Squirrel? I seriously doubt it because the Red Squirrel is barely half the size of the Grey Squirrel, more like a third or a quarter, based on what I see running along the fence out here. I observed two Eastern Gray Squirrels with unusual reddish-brownish patches. One is lighter gray and the other is darker. They are living in the same tree on the premises of my building in a Canadian city in Southern Ontario, Canada. I think they are siblings because of their similar brown/red patches but it seems a bit early in the season for juvenile animals.
I posted them for ID here and here but I will also post a few pics on this post for your convenience.
Light Grey Squirrel
As you can see from these pics, the brown patches appear on body, face, ears, and tails.
This pic is not quite as good but the dark grey squirrel appears to have the red-brown patches in the same places. That’s what makes me think they must be siblings.
What is their relationship?
They seem to be playing or burying food. I can’t quite figure out what they are doing. Maybe it’s courtship. The light coloured one rolled around on the ground. Then the dark one came down the tree and sniffed out the area. As the dark one came down the tree, I caught a glimpse of male genitalia.
With regard to the genetic origins of various colours, here is a paper that discusses breeding between Eastern Grey Squirrels and Eastern Fox Squirrels: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31296164/
Thank you, this is the kind of information I was hoping to receive. That squirrel you posted is so similar to the lighter one I posted, I thought it was the same one, but then I read the text. That confirms that it’s a normally-coloured Grey Squirrel. Re Fox Squirrels, we don’t have them here. The only squirrels I have ever seen are Grey Squirrels and Red Squirrels.
I’m in Southern Ontario too and lately I have ‘felt’ that the frequency and scope of reddishness among the grey s’ populations here is on the upside and like you, I’ve wondered about this.
I have spent most of my life in the Niagara region and I can remember as a young boy-naturalist, in the early seventies, the ‘arrival’ of the Greys in our neighborhoods of only Red squirrels.
Everyone was talking about these new urban ‘giants’ in the early 1970s, even though, of course, their history certainly predates human settlements.
Now, of course, the situation has reversed somewhat. A red squirrel sighting seems to be the rarity, at least in urban/suburban areas. But even so, they seem to be making a kind of return. A lot depends on proximity to the more natural wooded areas – a vanishing resource.
I have also noticed that the Reds are far more numerous as you move north in Ontario. In-law visits/sightings to the Ottawa region seems to reflect this for me.
I have also read some historical accounts going back to the early 1800s (I think) of years where the massive New England grey populations were observed to migrate for hundreds of miles in huge numbers – through the fields – seeking new feeding grounds.
Not sure, but it may have had something to do with the sudden collapse of the American Chestnut, the great foundation block of so much of the natural world at the time.
But I remember the description of startled pioneer travelers coming across these rodent ‘rivers’ of Greys churning along.
To answer your second question, if these are the first two reddish Gray Squirrels you’ve seen in the area, it does seem likely they are siblings. But also yes, siblings can mate. They’re squirrels and don’t know any better, and a certain amount of inbreeding doesn’t harm most species the way it would humans - it’s unlikely to cause birth defects in squirrel offspring. Can’t say for sure whether these two are planning to mate or not, but it does seem likely.
Even our Arizona Grays, basically a southwestern equivalent to Eastern Grays, can have some brownish patches. Maybe it’s related to moulting or just some variation in their pelage (many gray Sciurus are not strictly gray in color).
Very interesting background on the squirrels. Thanks for sharing. I’m a couple hundred miles (more or less) north of you in Waterloo Region. I grew up on the farm in the 1960s where wildlife was not abundant, since every inch of land is put to use. I remember the 1970s well, but not till I moved to the city about twenty years ago did I start seeing squirrels so I don’t know their history for this area.
I have now been living on the same property for nine years, basically a decade, so I know the squirrel history of this place reasonably well. Grey Squirrels is all I used to see. Then an American Red Squirrel showed up in the middle of June 2022. (I looked it up just now.) It seemed a family was raised here, since later in the season I saw two squirrels playing like young animals do.
Then I saw a Red Squirrel perhaps a few more times the following year or two, but none for several years. Now last winter, one of the coldest days in February, I saw a brightly coloured Red Squirrel eating out on the fence. The ones I am seeing now are not as brightly coloured. I’m going to make a thread about Red Squirrels because it probably doesn’t fit in here.
Actually, I think I saw this before but never gave it any thought. Just now I looked through some old photos. June 2022, to be specific. And I saw a squirrel that I dubbed “Red-faced Grey Squirrel.” I also saw one that I describe as being black or dark grey with yellow patches.
Red-faced Grey Squirrel, June 22 2022
It has the other markings of the one posted above but not the red tail.
Actually, now that I’ve got them together, I’m thinking these might be photos of the same squirrel. I did not see this grey and yellow squirrel any other day of the month except June 18. Possibly the background (light above, dark below) made me conclude differently about the colour of the squirrel itself. In the squirrel below, I do not see any yellow in the tail, just as I did not see any red in the tail of the Red-faced Squirrel. In this photo we can’t see the squirrel’s face.
Ah, interesting that you’ve seen the variation before after all. Those do look like two different squirrels to me. The top one has red on its face all the way out to the tip of it’s nose, and very sleek healthy looking fur. The bottom one has a darker tail, grey nose, and is kind of scruffy looking, like it was in the middle of shedding or possibly even suffering from fleas or lice. I don’t think it would have looked as sleek as the one in the top photo just a few days later.
Straying onto the general topic of squirrels and where they live, my area has fox squirrels and red squirrels in rural mostly wooded areas, and gray squirrels only around towns, suburbs, and campgrounds. I’ve never understood why that is. In 35 years in this house I’ve only seen one gray squirrel here, one time, and the poor thing seemed half tame so I think someone from town had relocated it here. But when I go into any one of several towns within a 15 mile radius, there are grays scampering all over, and hardly a fox or red to be seen.
