Yesterday I managed to get some much better picture of the white squirrel, thanks to a lady called Nina who was enticing the squirrel down with nuts. You can see the new photos by clicking on this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/34744624@N ... 79/detail/
Nina knows all about the squirrels in the park and tells me it is a female squirrel, about 4 months old and is known as Snowball. She told me these white squirrels are rare - since they only occur 1 in 100,000. The white squirrels tend to be quite small (like Snowball), size-wise they are more like red squirrels than grey ones. Snowball has red eyes, but apparently seems to have good hearing etc despite deafness being common in albino animals.
Apparently there used to be a white squirrel in Crystal Palace park that lived till about 8 years old, until it was killed by dogs. This is a particular problem at this time of year, when the squirrels tend to come and forage on the ground and sometimes get too engrossed in their food to notice dogs approaching them, so if you do have a dog that can't be trained not to chase them, it would be advisable to make sure it has a muzzle at this time of year if you are going near the white squirrels habitat - which is inbetween the fishing pond and the entrance onto Crystal Palace Park road. It would be a terrible shame if the white squirrel became another victim of dogs. The white squirrels are especially vulnerable because their colour makes them really stand out.
On the other hand it is possible to train most dogs not to touch the squirrels - Nina's dog is very protective of the squirrels and actually chased other dogs away from Snowball!
If you want to try to get a better look at the squirrel you could feed it some nuts (apparently it likes brazil nuts), but make sure it runs back up the tree to eat the nut to remain safe!
Snowball the Squirrel
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couldbeanyone
- Posts: 22
- Joined: 11 May 2006 20:21
- Location: no longer sydenham
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couldbeanyone
- Posts: 22
- Joined: 11 May 2006 20:21
- Location: no longer sydenham
Hi, everybody, I just wanted to find somewhere I could add a post because about a weeka go I actually saw the white Squirrel in crystal palace Park. I managed to get a couple of pitures on my mobile but the quality was not too good. It is obviously the same one as it was right outside my house (between the pond and the park entrance).
i am made up now as my girlfriend had almost convinced me I was going mad.
if anyone has any pics please email them to me, and if I manage to get any myself I will post them on here.
i am made up now as my girlfriend had almost convinced me I was going mad.
if anyone has any pics please email them to me, and if I manage to get any myself I will post them on here.
Read above.............
You can get pictures from here :-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34744624@N ... 79/detail/
You can get pictures from here :-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34744624@N ... 79/detail/
Im a bit late with this reply, but have only just joined the site. I have seen a squirrel with a pure white star shape on its back. Maybe something to do with this white squirrel you are talking about! Its been in my kitchen, and it opened a box of chocolates over christmas, that were left on the work top!
