A few of the infamous Brevard white squirrels. Photos taken on the grounds of Brevard College, Brevard North Carolina Please view LARGE against a black background HERE If the black background doesn’t work, please view just LARGE HERE Here's the story of how the white squirrels came about: Brevard’s white squirrels originated from a carnival animal truck. According to Brevard resident Mrs. W.E. Mull, a pair of white squirrels was given to her brother-in-law, H.H. Mull, by Mr. Black of Madison, Florida, in 1949. A carnival truck had overturned near Black’s home and the squirrels were caught by Mr. Black when he observed them playing in his pecan grove. Mull gave the critters to his niece, Barbara, who unsuccessfully tried to breed them. In 1951 she married and left home. Eventually, one of the white squirrels escaped and Mr. Mull soon let the other one go. Before long, the squirrels began breeding in the wild and appeared in several areas of town. The white squirrels became so prized that the Brevard City Council voted to approve an ordinance declaring and establishing a sanctuary for squirrels, especially the white ones, in 1986. And that it “shall be unlawful for any person to hunt, kill, trap, or otherwise take any protected squirrels within the city by this section.” Biologists recognize no known species of all-white squirrels in the world. The Brevard squirrels, with dark eyes and sometimes gray streaked fur, are not albinos==a condition in which an animal’s body has no melanin, a color pigment, resulting in white skin and fur, and pink or reddish eyes. In addition to Brevard, white squirrels have been spotted in Olney, IL; Versailles, IL; Hodgenville, KY; Marionville, MO; Trenton, NJ; Bloomfield, NY; Greenwood, SC; and Kenton, TN. But only Brevard holds an annual festival in their honor!! 2008 marks the 12th year that Brevard takes a white squirrel count. Each fall Bob Glesener (director of The White Squirrel Research Institute) coordinates this annual survey. The Institute started as a Brevard College student project in 1997 with four science students and Glesener. After these students graduated, Glesener single-handedly continued the project with the help of volunteers. The purpose of the count is to determine the percentage of white squirrels each year. The study area is approximately three square miles following the original city limits. It is divided into 35 sectors, each roughly 20-30 acres in size. During the years of study, the population of the white squirrels in Brevard has held steady at about 25 percent of the entire squirrel population. Although the count is not an actual census, it does give an accurate estimate of the percentage of the white versus gray squirrels. Using other methods, the Institute has also estimated the squirrel density on the Brevard College campus to be over twice that of most of the rest of the study area. This abundance, coupled with a high percentage of the white variant (over 35%), makes the College with its park-like landscape, one of the best places for visitors to view their first white squirrel. Each September Glesener recruits volunteers (White Squirrel Spotters) to help with the white squirrel count. If interested, please contact the Heart of Brevard. Or for more information on the results of the annual count, visit www.whitesquirrelinstitute.com www.brevardnc.org/historyws.php MELANIE - A FLORIDA CONNECTION? (SEE UPDATE BELOW) During a vacation excursion to the Orlando area, Bob Glesener happened upon a Wildlife Rehabilitation and Refuge Center known as Back To Nature Wildlife, Inc. There amongst cages housing everything from injured bald eagles to half-wolves was a white squirrel named Melanie (could the name be a play on words referring to the pigment melanin she is so conspicuously lacking?). Melanie shares her cage with her sister Missy who, although raised by human hands from the same litter, is a normal gray squirrel. Melanie, herself, is not only white but has the same basic pattern of pigmentation, i.e. dark eyes, dark markings on the head between the eyes and ears, and a dorsal stripe, as the white squirrels of Brevard. However, her head patch is broader than that of the North Carolina population. It will be interesting to see if Melanie's dorsal strip falls within the limits of variation of the Brevard population, once that study has been completed. Upon first observation, it too would seem to be broader than that of our own squirrels. According to popular folklore, white squirrels arrived in Brevard from Florida. There a circus caravan wreck had allegedly released white squirrels of questionable origin (Hawaii). The squirrels thrived in a pecan orchard and were harvested for sell by a local entrepreneur. This was in northern Florida between Jacksonville and Tallahassee, possibly near Madison. A friend of the merchant delivered a pair to his niece in Brevard in 1949 who eventually entrusted their care to her grandfather who kept them in a large cage in his backyard on Johnson Street. When one escaped, he released the other. Today, white squirrels with similar markings are found from Cashiers in Jackson County to the west and Hendersonville to the east (a span of approximately 50 miles), interbreeding with native gray squirrels. They apparently spread from Brevard by either migration or trapping. Melanie was captured in Kissimmee FL where observers feared for her survival because of her contrasting coloration (see Melanie's Biography from Back To Nature, Inc.). Other than Melanie, her capturers were unaware of white squirrels in that area at the time; they brought her to the rehab center, not because she was injured, but because they were afraid that being "different" she would be ostracized. However, since the appearance of an article in Back to Nature's newsletter Wildlife Matters, numerous sightings have been reported in the greater Orlando area (including Brevard, Osceola and Polk Counties). Kissimmee is some 160 miles south of where the alleged caravan wreck supposedly happened. Similar sighting have since been made in Jacksonville, Sawdust, Tallahassee, Pensacola as well as other north and central Florida areas. Could genes for the white morph have spread through migration or trapping throughout this vast area since the caravan wreck? Perhaps. Or is it possible that this color variant is actually native to Florida where it occurs in relatively low abundance in comparison to the Brevard NC population. It's also possible that the squirrels are native to only a single locality such as Madison and have been distributed widely in central and northern regions of Florida by purchases from the squirrel merchant for whose existence there is considerable evidence.. Perhaps the circus connection and exotic origin of these squirrels was merely a clever marketing ploy invented by the salesman to generate interest in his living merchandise. After all, Hawaii is an oceanic island with no native terrestrial mammals. There is an all white squirrel found in SE Asia but it belongs to an entirely different genus; the likelihood of freely interbreeding with a members of a different genus half way around the world to slim to say the least. If the Polynesian/Asian origin is improbable, then the circus connection is unnecessary. The squirrels are probably simply Floridians. UPDATE In Spring of 1999, Melanie and Missy were released on the grounds of the Tallahassee Museum of History and Natural Science. This was a quality of life issue and represents a personal victory for David Gale who has since left Back to Nature, Inc. (thanks, David, for all your help and cooperation). Melanie joins a few dozen other white squirrels roaming the museum's semi-protected confines (hawks are free to come and go and are known to occassionally prey on the squirrels). The other squirrels which have markings similar to Melanie are not from central Florida but rather from the panhandle area. According to Mike Jones of the Tallahassee Museum: "[someone] moved some white squirrels from Sawdust [Florida] to a hunting and fishing lodge on the Ochlocknee River at Sopchoppy (called the Breakaway Lodge). In the 1960s, a banker from Crawfordville, FL purchased this lodge. His wife was friends with a member of our Board of Directors and offered to release some white squirrels on Museum property. This occurred sometime around 1970." The white squirrel folklore of the Sopchoppy area is remarkably similar to that associated with the Brevard population. In addition to the circus caravan wreck, it also alludes to an exotic origin (China rather than Hawaii). Although I personally put little credence into the Asian origin of either population, the similarity of the legends is intriguing. www.whitesquirrelinstitute.whitesquirrelfestival.com/Mela...