Brevard’s white squirrels would seem to be doing well as preparations are being made for the eighth Annual White Squirrel Festival on Memorial Day weekend May 26th and 27th. Under the supervision of the Heart of Brevard, community volunteers conducted the 15th Annual Brevard Squirrel Count this past Fall over a three square mile study area centered Read more...
Rank Ordering of Sectors for 2010 by (1) % White, (2) White Squirrels/Acre, & (3) Total Squirrels/Acre The rankings below are intended to allow interested persons to identify areas within the city of Brevard where they are most likely to encounter white squirrels. Percentage by itself can be misleading since even if the percentage of Read more...
For larger versions of images, click on them and then maximize new window Distribution of White Squirrel Colonies Description: Brevard is not the only community to host a white squirrel colony. There are approximately a dozen other cities with similar populations. The most famous of these is in Olney IL where Dr. John Stencel has Read more...
Brevard’s white squirrel, whether found in Brevard or a neighboring community, typically has a white coat with dark eyes, a head patch, and a dorsal strip that broadens at the shoulder resembling a saddle. The head patch can be solid, horseshoe or doughnut shaped; it may resemble a triangle, a diamond, deer tracks or even Read more...
Frequently Asked Questions Since the emphasis of this post is on answers to FAQ, I have left it free of illustrations. However, there are links to appropriate images embedded throughout. Look for colored text which appear underlined when the cursor points their way. Most of these are borrowed from other posts at this site. Questions are Read more...
Lions and Tigers and … White Squirrels? Just what is a white squirrel, anyway? Is it a distinct species? Is it a mutation? These are some of my most FAQs. And the answer is ……. it depends. There is, in fact, one tree squirrel for which a white coat seems to be a characteristic of Read more...
The stated purpose of the squirrel count and the White Squirrel Research Institute is to monitor the abundance and distribution of Brevard’s unusual color variant of the Eastern Gray Squirrel. That sounds very academic. But why should we expect the community to embrace and participate in this annual event and other related studies? Why should you care? Read more...
If you are participating in this year’s Annual Brevard Squirrel Count, we sincerely thank you! This survey will help us monitor the distribution and abundance of Brevard’s resident white squirrel population. The data from this year’s count will be available to the public on our website (currently at www.brevardnc.org/research-institute). In the meantime you may wish Read more...
This is a relatively technical (and wordy) posting. The first few paragraphs outline just enough genetics to understand the terminology. If you’ve had Biology 101, this is probably review. The rest is algebra. If this kind of approach is not for you, suffice it to say, a dominant model gives a much, much, much better fit Read more...
GLESENER, ROBERT. Associate Professor of Biology, Emeritus, Brevard College. B.S., University of Maryland (Zoology); M.S. (Zoology) and Ph.D. (Biological Sciences), University of Michigan. I first heard of Brevard while an undergraduate at the University of Maryland. Southern Appalachia is salamander heaven and I spent my summers in Western North Carolina trail blazing and collecting specimens Read more...
