As you drive through Brevard residential areas, don't be surprised if you see squirrels that are not the traditional gray. ....

Oh, we have squirrels of the ordinary type, but we also have squirrels that are white as white as the driven snow.

You'll see them as you drive through town and we ask that you be careful of them. These creatures are so prized in Transylvania that in 1986 the Brevard City Council voted unanimously to approve an ordinance declaring and establishing a sanctuary for squirrels, particularly the Brevard White Squirrel.

The ordinance states: "The entire area embraced within the corporate limits of the city is hereby designated as a sanctuary for all species of squirrel (family Sciuriadae), and in particular the 'Brevard White Squirrel.' It shall be unlawful for any person to hunt, kill, trap, or otherwise take any protected squirrels within the city by this section.

At first the Brevard squirrels were thought to be albinos of the common gray squirrel family. But naturalists who have observed them say this is not the case. Albinoism is a biological condition in which an animal is congenitally deficient of melanin, a color pigment. This can produce a white, or colorless squirrel. Albinos have no color in their eyes, either appearing pink or reddish.

....... The Brevard squirrels, however, have normal dark eyes. Thus, they would appear to be a new species which has evolved.

Biologists recognize no known species of an all-white squirrel in the world.

The origin of these distinguished residents appears to be a carnival animal truck. According to Mrs. W.E. Mull, a Brevard resident, back in 1949 a pair of white squirrels was given to her brother-in-law, H.H. Mull, by a Mr. Black of Madison, Fla. It seems that a carnival truck overturned near Black's home some time earlier and one day he'd seen white squirrels playing in his pecan grove. He caught a pair and gave them to Mr. Mull.

Mull, in turn, gave the curious critters to his niece, Barbara, who put them in a cage with the intention breeding them. The animals, however, would not breed in captivity.

In 1951, Mull's niece married and left home. Eventually, one of the squirrels escaped and soon after, Mull let the other go Before long the squirrels were appearing in several areas of the town. These days county residents say they have seen them as far away as Lake Toxaway.

Transylvania is not the only home of white squirrels, however. They have also been spotted in Olney, Ill., Kenton, Tenn.; Versailles, Ill.; Marionville, Mo.; Trenton. N.J.; Bloomfield, N.Y.; Greenwood, S.C.; and Hodgenville, Ky.

But, no matter where else these little white rodents may pop up, as far as we here in Transylvania are concerned, our white squirrels are special, the real thing.

For: Additional Information ........ E-Mail .... lauragre@citcom.net

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