Black Squirrels in Washington, DC

If you have ever visited Washington, DC - you may have noticed that the squirrels running around the National Mall come in a whole bunch of different colors.

There are a few, particularly around the Vietnam Veterans memorial - that are stark white.

But the ones that most often catch tourists' attention are the solid black squirrels. They represent about 20% of the local squirrel population with normal gray squirrels making up most of the rest.

It turns out the the gray squirrels in Washington are all decendents of 18 Canadian squirrels, which were released from the National Zoo during the Presidency of Teddy Roosevelt. At the time, the Smithsonian was trying to replenish the local gray squirrel population which had been greatly reduced due to hunting. Back then, folks were actually worried that gray squirrels were going extinct.

The black Canadian squirrels tended to give them an advantage and the gene for a black coat has since spread through the local squirrel population so much that people can now see black squirrels in the Virginia and Maryland suburbs of DC.