![]() ![]() The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. ![]() The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The gene that causes the black colouration in squirrels could also be linked to higher testosterone levels - and there is anecdotal evidence that the black squirrels are more aggressive and successful as mates - however there is no proof of this yet. Although the black appears to be more aggressive than the grey, it is the same size and is the same species. However, whereas the grey was bigger than the red and carried a pox the differences between the black and grey are more subtle. Grey squirrels were also introduced to the UK by the Victorians and have now almost wiped out the native red squirrel population in the UK.ĭr Thomas said the black squirrel may do the same in the eastern counties. She said it may even have been the Duke of Bedford who owned Woburn in Bedfordshire. Now there are tens of thousands in the UK.ĭr Thomas believes the original squirrel would have been bought over by a wealthy Victorian landowner following the trend of introducing new species to the UK. “It took just one cheeky squirrel to escape a zoo and mate with a grey. Genetic tests revealed the British black is a direct descendant of the American black. She said: “It had been argued that the black squirrel was the result of a genetic mutation caused by two grey squirrels mating and producing black offspring.įinally we have quashed this. It would be almost impossible for exactly the same genetic mutation to have happened in the UK, therefore the black squirrel is probably imported. ![]() Around Hitchin and Letchworth the black squirrels already outnumber greys and could be dominant throughout the eastern counties in the next 20 years.ĭr Thomas found that the DNA was exactly the same as black squirrels found in the US. The latest estimates show there could be as many as 25,000 in the east of England. It had been thought that British black squirrels, who appear to be more aggressive than the greys, were a mutant produced by two grey squirrels mating.However scientists looking at the growing population in the eastern counties have found that the black squirrels are in fact an introduced subgroup that escaped from a menagerie of exotic animals in the east of England more than 100 years ago. Dr Alison Thomas, a professor of life sciences of Anglia Ruskin University, conducted a number of genetic tests to work out the background of the new squirrel Her research was widely reported in the national press and on the BBC in January 2009. Fairfield Park was one of the first places that the wild black squirrel was spotted in 1912 and has been spreading throughout the area since. ![]()
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