Audubon and melanistic/'black' squirrels

Audubon's "Black Squirrel" (Sciurus niger) from his "Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America" (1845) (https://johnjames.audubon.org/what-viviparous-quadrupeds-north-america).

Lueninghoener (Lueninghoener, Edward W., "An investigation of the melanistic phase of the Western Fox squirrel (Sciurus niger rufiventer) in Eastern Nebraska and Western Iowa" (1973). Student Work. 3090 https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/studentwork/3090) notes that Audubon provided an accurate description of melanistic/'black' fox squirrels in his Missouri River Journals (1843), having first observed them near St. Joseph Missouri, and continuing to observe them up until "Council Bluffs" (just north of Missouri Valley, Iowa...north of present-day Council Bluffs across the Missouri River from Omaha, NE). The "black squirrel" was initially identified/named in Audubon's honor (S. auduboni) before later being recognized as only a melanistic form of S. niger rather than a separate species (Lueninghoener 1973, page 2).

Lueninghoener also uses Audubon's observations to argue against the hypothesis that these melanistic/'black' squirrels were likely only found in urban areas: "The fact that Audubon saw the black phase here at that time meant that the black phase was able to survive its natural predators without any help from a city's protection" (Lueninghoener 1973, page 18).

Posted on May 12, 2020 05:47 PM by colincroft