Albino Rarity

I have a feeling that albino squirrels might not be as rare as this article makes them out to be. According to this article, "only 10 in every one million squirrels are born with albinism." That means only 0.001% of all squirrels are albino, which makes the picture to the right, which sparked the article I linked to, so newsworthy.

Guess what Donita Clausen, the photographer who snapped this picture, you aren't the only special one. Just a week and a half ago when I went out for a run with my housemate, Karl, we came across a tried and true albino squirrel ourselves.

At first Karl didn't notice it and I just thought it was a rabbit. That was until it moved. It didn't move like a bunny, all hoppy and cute. No, it scrambled along the grass towards a tree, much like a squirrel. That's what caught my attention and caused me to stop running to check out the animal that caught my eye.

We moved in closer, seeing that it was a squirrel, to find out that it wasn't just a white squirrel, but that it was a white squirrel with red eyes. It was definitely albino, it was definitely full grown, and it was definitely a yard and a half from my feet.

So in the span of two weeks, in two different parts of the US there have been albino squirrel sightings. This would mean that there are at least 199,998 other squirrels around that aren't albino that the combination of Donita and myself will have to see before we see another albino.

Sounds like a challenge to me. Albino squirrel #3, here I come.