You're not going nuts - these squirrels really are white (From The Northern Echo)

You're not going nuts - these squirrels really are white

3:30pm Tuesday 20th July 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

A PAIR of white squirrels has set up home in a forest hideaway.

Visitors spotted the two grey squirrels in woodland at Guisborough Forest, on Teesside.

Their snowy pelts are caused by a rare genetic mutation.

Wildlife ranger Cath Brason said: "There has been the odd white squirrel in the population here now and again for the past 30 years, but this is the first time ever there has been two.

"The white gene must be there in the gene pool.

"We don't have to do anything special to look after them, they just dot about in the trees with all the other squirrels.

"They're easier to spot because they are white.

"Their fur makes them more vulnerable to attack from predators as they have no natural camouflage, so they are doing well to be here at all.

"They keep to the part of the woodland with the fruit-bearing trees. They seem to like sweet chestnuts."

The 360-hectare (900 acre) beauty spot near Middlesbrough is home to a range of wildlife, from badgers to dragonflies and adders.

The squirrels are a one-in-100,000 freak of nature, a Forestry Commission spokesman said.

They are the only white squirrels living in a quarter of a million acres of forest in North Yorkshire, Northumberland, and County Durham.