The albino squirrel of Jamaica Pond, captured - in photos

Note:: The photos have been put behind a registration wall. Here is a 2003 photo.

Kerry Lee photographs the increasingly tame beast.

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I saw one of these..

By bostran1 | Sun, 05/13/2007 - 1:22am

In Washington D.C. when I was a younger, probably 10-12 years ago. It chased my younger brother. Very strange but beautiful too. Thanks for the pictures!

Albinos--rare but beautiful

By independentminded | Sun, 05/13/2007 - 10:57am

Beautiful photograph of a rare and beautiful animal, Adam. Thanks for posting it and sharing it with us. I've seen other albino animals ( i. e. rabbits, dogs, cats, parakeets(I owned an albino parakeet at one point), even an albino horse, believe it or not), but I've never seen an albino squirrel.

Kewlll!

By SwirlyGrrl (not verified) | Sun, 05/13/2007 - 11:40pm

I hope it doesn't stray too far from the brush - there be hawks in that area, and this guy doesn't have that camoflage advantage.

Beautiful photos, beautiful squirrel.

Yup.

By independentminded | Mon, 05/14/2007 - 12:13am

An albino squirrel's vulnerability to attack by hawks cannot be underestimated.

One thing that I also read/heard is that albism is a form of genetic mutation. Albinos, although quite beautiful, are considerably less healthy than other animals, for some wierd reason, and generally don't live as long.

Miki, google is your friend

By eeka | Mon, 05/14/2007 - 10:12am

Must you spout off random inaccurate "facts" about EVERY subject?

Yes, albinism is genetic. But the only associated health conditions are visual impairments and skin that is sensitive to light. Animals IN THE WILD may live shorter lives because of issues such as camouflage, as mentioned above, and/or because they don't have the adaptive capabilities we do (wearing sunscreen, wearing dark glasses, generally choosing not to wander around alone near hungry lions if you're blind).

Albinism is not associated with any systemic health or immune conditions. People (and domesticated animals) with albinism do not live shorter lives and do not have poor health as a result of albinism.

A quick google search could have told you all this.

http://1smootshort.blogspot.com

Before you accuse me of not checking my facts about albinism,

By independentminded | Mon, 05/14/2007 - 9:07pm

I just cruised on google a bit and read an article in wikipedia about albinism. One thing that the article did point out was the fact that vision problems, are, indeed, fairly common among people with albinism, due to the insufficient amount of melanin or pigment in their eyes, although not all people with albinism have it in their eyes. Many, if n ot most of them are, however, considerably more prone to skin cancer than most of the general populace.

WTF?

By eeka | Tue, 05/15/2007 - 8:42am

Your first post said that animals with albinism are unhealthy and live shorter lives because of it. This is not true.

And your second post says exactly what I told you about albinism.

So, yes, I did (rightly) accuse you of not checking your facts, because you made claims that are simply not true.

http://1smootshort.blogspot.com

uh...

By Molly | Tue, 05/15/2007 - 9:29am

That's exactly what eeka said. I'm not sure whose point you're trying to prove here.

Wiki article about albinism in popular culture

By Molly | Tue, 05/15/2007 - 2:28pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albinism_in_popular_culture

People with albinism aren't having a real good time of it in popular depictions.

Get over yourself

By Debbie (not verified) | Tue, 05/15/2007 - 11:29am

Eeka, please get over yourself, you are just a big know it all

Debbie

Miki has a posse!

By eeka | Tue, 05/15/2007 - 12:13pm

Debbie, would you prefer that people continue to go around spreading falsehoods about people with various disabilities and/or medical conditions? Would you prefer that people not stop to correct these facts? Have you asked any people with albinism (or other medical conditions) how they feel about people spreading myths about people with their condition?

Regardless, being opposed to accurate information is a valid point of view for one to hold. Maybe you could e-mail the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation and ask them to please stop creating informational bulletins about albinism, seeing as how the distribution of this information offends you.

http://1smootshort.blogspot.com

WooHoo! Let's All Get Nasty!

By Suldog | Tue, 05/15/2007 - 12:24pm

Since we're devolving from "Aw! Cute Squirrel!" to "F*** Y**!", I'll be happy to point out that just about every person I've ever heard say "Get over yourself" needs to get over him or her self.

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

"Eeka, please get over

By Molly | Tue, 05/15/2007 - 1:12pm

"Eeka, please get over yourself, you are just a big know it all"

Thing is, she's right. People who have highly visible differences, such as albinism, the use of a wheelchair, blindess or any number of other possibilities, have enough trouble in society without having false information about them casually tossed around. In this case, Miki was in error in stating that people with albinism are inherently unhealthy, and eeka corrected that error.

Granted, this whole thread started out being about squirrels with albinism, and animals without their natural camouflage do tend to get eaten more often than others of their species, but when the focus shifted to humans, suggestions of inborn weakness became fallacial.

Here, have a link about squirrels with melanin enhancedness:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Squirrel

(Mostly I like the little mouse graphic where it says "This rodent article is a stub.)

There's more than one

By Gareth (not verified) | Mon, 05/14/2007 - 11:18am

There's more than one white squirrel at Jamaica Pond. I've seen two at once before, on two separate trees. No pictures, but then it's pretty much a law of nature that you see more without cameras.

Oh, I'm sure there are.

By independentminded | Mon, 05/14/2007 - 9:08pm

They're even more vulnerable to attack by predators, however, because they don't have the ability to camoflage themselves, the way non-albino squirrels do.

This blog is open to invited readers only??????????

By Ron Ron (Da-Doo) (not verified) | Mon, 05/14/2007 - 9:33pm

You post a link to an inaccessable blog?

" This blog is open to invited readers only ""

Oh, well

By adamg | Mon, 05/14/2007 - 9:56pm

It was public when I first linked to it. I've posted a link to an older photo up above.

What do they eat?

By Anonymous (not verified) | Wed, 09/26/2007 - 8:33am

What do albino squirrels eat? I'm doing a project on them and google doesn't have the info. Do they eat the same thing as other squirrels

Albino nuts, of course.

By adamg | Wed, 09/26/2007 - 9:29am

No, they eat the same thing as other squirrels.

*sigh*

By Kiara (not verified) | Sun, 10/07/2007 - 3:51pm

why cant we all just get along and talk about the cute albino squirrel? i mean, did you come here to argue, or to see the squirrel?

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