A blue-tailed squirrel lives in a Beaverton, Oregon, yard. Is it a mutant or did it run afoul of some dye?
DEAR JOAN: I just lately moved to a brand new house and have seen I've a blue-tailed squirrel residing in my yard! His stomach is white and most of his high half is common gray/brown squirrel colours.
At first I assumed perhaps somebody had spray painted him, nevertheless it’s been a number of weeks and he nonetheless as blue as ever.
I'm writing you since you revealed an article a few blue-tailed squirrel in Oregon again in 2016. Simply curious in the event you had any ideas on this.
Do you suppose there's such a factor as a blue-tailed squirrel? Has anybody else ever reached out to you about it? I'm simply so fascinated by this little man!
Ashley Schrom, Beaverton, Oregon
DEAR ASHLEY: Since publishing that column, I’ve heard from people from everywhere in the Bay Space and the remainder of nation who even have seen blue-tailed squirrels or have despatched me hyperlinks to tales about different blue-tails all through the world.
Does this imply we've a brand new species of squirrels? Consultants say no. They will’t clarify how the squirrels received their blue tails, however they're sure that it’s not a pure phenomenon, though there are purple squirrels in India, Ratufa indica, generally known as a Malabar.
These are legit maroon coloured squirrels, however they're vastly totally different from our brown, grey and pink squirrels. For one, they’re about 4 instances the dimensions of our squirrels, they usually create caches of meals excessive up in timber.
So your blue squirrel isn’t the product of cross-breeding with a Malabar.
Blue paint and dyes are generally utilized in building areas to determine underground pipes that carry water. Purple paint is used to indicate energy traces and orange for cable and different communication traces.
It’s potential a squirrel received in the best way of one in all these paint sprayers or received into blue-tinted water. With the recognition of gender reveal events, your squirrel may additionally have crashed a celebration the place celebrants discovered the newborn can be a boy.
That doesn’t clarify why we aren’t seeing pink squirrels, however there may very well be one thing in regards to the blue dye that's extra staining and lasting.
Except a neighbor confesses to by accident dying a squirrel’s tail blue, we’ll by no means know for certain how these ornamental touches had been added, however we will be fairly sure that we’re not taking a look at a brand new species of squirrel or a mutation.
DEAR JOAN: I’ve seen ant hills up to now — little volcano wanting issues — however these days I’ve seen two positioned carefully collectively, so that they virtually appear like a pig snout. I used to be on a stroll at some point and thought it could be a one-off, however I’ve seen the little pig snout buildings at different areas.
Appears bizarre that I’ve by no means seen these earlier than this yr. Is there a brand new ant architect on the town?
Sarah Hamren, Martinez
DEAR SARAH: Please inform me the ants aren’t blue.
I spoke with Steve Schutz, scientific packages supervisor with the Contra Costa Mosquito and Vector Management District. He says ant hills can have a number of entrances, and whereas it’s odd to have two entrances so shut collectively, it occurs.
The hills probably belong to the identical colony, as most ant species are territorial.
Have a query for Joan?
Use this way to submit questions. Pictures must be mailed individually to jmorris@bayareanewsgroup.com.