First Meeting With a Black Squirrel

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Ever since I have been living in Florida one or two grey squirrels have come to eat bread I leave for them on the porch railing. I put out the bread in the morning and then sometimes during the day I will see at least one squirrel sitting there stuffing its face. For the first time today, I saw black squirrels which looked really small running past my window along the cable. So I decided to find out why I suddenly had black squirrels eating the bread instead of gray. I discovered that in north Florida and south Georgia there is the Sherman's Fox Squirrel. This squirrel weighs between one and three pounds with its head being black and the ears and nose white or they can be all black. Mine appears to be all black. It's odd that they say this squirrel is in areas with longleaf pines because in the garden here we mostly have palms. The squirrels must have found out I leave out bread in the mornings so they come from another place. These squirrels were named after H.B. Sherman who was an esteemed ecologist studying small mammals. He made contributions to the study of native Florida mammals during his research. Unfortunately, since that time much of the habitat of these squirrels has been lost to development and deforestation. Well, I don't live anywhere near a forest so one day it would be interesting to go walking in the direction they come running from to see if there are any pines. The good thing is that these squirrels are protected throughout Florida and it is prohibited to hunt or capture them, I sure would not mind it if they chose to stay around and make their home in some of the palm trees here or another kind of tree that has a hollow in the trunk. It is said that this species is adaptive and resilient and are now increasing in number. They are the cutest black squirrels and the first time I see them. Just a Google image of a black squirrel and when I can I will try to get my own photo