Blonde Tailed Gray Squirrels - Who Knew?

They're breaking into the hair salon at night and getting into the Clairol :) But really, only their hairdresser knows for sure.

Squirrels are very clever, maybe clever enough to break into a hair salon, but can they read the directions on the Clairol bottles? I'm sure I couldn't read the directions without reading glasses...Have you ever seen a squirrel with glasses?

There are several variations of the eastern gray squirrel. Some in the north are completely black, same squirrel, just a different coat color. Same goes for blonde tailed squirrels. There are even some that have bands of color on the tail. It's all genetics, so if you see one, you are more than likely to see more of them in the same area. I have a couple blonde tailed squirrels that come to my yard. I just call them Blondie. LOL

Thanks, Judy. I showed my picture and asked the same question on my facebook page and no one seemed to have ever seen or heard of them. One person thought it was a joke and I had photoshopped the picture. lol.

There tends to be seasonal color variation with gray squirrels. Their summer coats are generally lighter and less gray than their winter coats, a sort of yellowish-brown color, actually. This color variation is a molting and shedding thing, and it's pretty hard to predict what's going to happen there. Some squirrels are lighter than others after molting or shedding. Your squirrel is simply lighter overall than most and, since gray squirrel tails tend to be lighter than their bodies, your squirrel's tail is also lighter (and yellower) than most.

White-tailed deer molt, too. In the winter their fur is a gray-brown color, but in the summer it's a reddish-brown color. In the spring it can be sort of mottled, as their heavy winter fur falls out in chunks, giving them a rather scruffy look.

I live in the north and have never seen a squirrel with a tail quite that color before, although I've seen plenty of black squirrels, some with brownish tails quite a bit lighter than their black bodies. I'm guessing that this light color phase variation that your squirrel is exhibiting might be a southern thing, but that's just a guess.

did it have a valley girl accent?

it makes me wonder if a brown one and a gray one got together, and that was the result. i find that squirrels blend well with their environment, when they are dark, the trees are dark. so i wonder if there are any light colored trees near by? the ones near me blend really well with the street. well, their outsides do anyway.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Robert and Mike, the body of these blonde tailed squirrels were the same color gray as the rest of the squirrels in the neighborhood but the tails were not even light brown, they were very golden blonde.


I found a post on line from someone who said that they were immature squirrels and the tails would darken as they matured. That may be true because we saw these blondies about 4 weeks ago for a couple of weeks and now they have disappeared.

Hmmmmm..... Jim, I don't know how true that is. I live in a heavily wooded area and have seen plenty of young squirrels in the almost 30 years I've lived here. The majority of the time they look just like the adults in color, just smaller. Now this year I saw something different. My neighbor had 3 baby squirrels born in his tree. The mother is a regular looking squirrel and I'm thinking the father is one of the blonde tailed squirrels I've been seeing. The 3 little ones are so stinkin' cute. Their bodies are lighter than normal and their tails are so light they are almost white. When they are playing in the tree and the sun is behind them, they look like little ghost squirrels up there. The last I saw them, they finally came down and were running around in my yard. I have not seen them for a couple weeks, just hoping the falcons and hawks didn't get them.

You are right, Judy. After I posted this yesterday, I saw another blonde tail on my evening walk. He/she was large and definitely not immature.

The gray squirrels have many tail colors: gray, white, blonde, red... even saw a pic of one with a blue tail! They think he got into some tinted water, but it was odd how it was only the tail that was blue. Jim, I had to go GOOGLE blonde tail squirrel, as I was intrigued :)

I never heard of blonde-tailed gray squirrels before this thread. I thought the black squirrels and white squirrels were pretty unique. I've seen both in Maryland and many people don't know about the flying squirrels because they're nocturnal.

Brian, several years ago I was fortunate enough to see a Northern Flying Squirrel. One night after dark one of my dogs wanted to go outside. So, I took her out and as we were returning to the house, this thing come fluttering out of my apple trees. It wasn't flying like a bird or bat so I had no idea what it was, only that it was coming straight at me. I ducked and turned to see where it was going and it landed on the trunk of my mulberry tree. So, I cautiously crept over there to see what it was. I was surprised to see this big eyed thing clinging to the tree and could see the folds of skin on the side. My first thought was that a sugar glider had escaped from the zoo as I only live about a mile away and they have had things escape from there before. But, it didn't have any stripes on it so decided to look up flying squirrel and that was it! Coolest thing I have seen in my yard yet!

Thanks for sharing Judy. Yes, they use the stretchy skin to glide from tree to tree. My father was fooling around with a birdhouse one day and one "flew" out of the birdhouse. Surprised everyone!

This year we have had a blond squirrel and have heard they are Indiana squirrels and that they have lots of them there. I'm in Ohio. We've also had albino squirrels around here on a regular basis for years. Plenty of plain regular grays of course and they all interbreed.