Thank you Anita for researching this. I KNEW someone would.
BTW, Are you doing this at work?? :)
I was losing sleep over it!
Now I have the "Rest of the story" on KSU Black Squirrels. Here I thought
we were special! Darn!

Oh well, now I can sleep tonight without the double-dose of NIQUIL!
Thanks,
Dale


----- Original Message -----
From: "Anita Hawkins"
Subject: [IBC] evil squirrels!
Dale - "folklore" not withstanding, the KSU black squirrels were
brought down in 1961 from Canada (where they're relatively common) in
a well-documented incident. Not from Africa, sorry, as far as anyone
knows. Same species as the grey, though we may be seeing the
beginnings of the evolution of a new species here, since they don't
interbreed much with the greys. wait a few (human) generations and see...

from the KSU website:
"Ten rare black squirrels were imported from Canada in February 1961
by Larry Woodell, superintendent of grounds, and M. W. Staples, a
retired executive of
the Davey Tree Expert Company. When first released, the large,
black-spiked squirrels were frequently mistaken for skunks. Today they
own the campus. The
Black Squirrel Festival started in 1981 as a day-long event held on
the Student Center Plaza to introduce new students to campus and
community organizations."

So *your* black squirrels are no different from, say, the population
on the NIH campus in Washington DC. Say, what is it about black
squirrels and academia anyway?

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