White Squirrel

All summer we have been getting reports of a white squirrel in the park, living somewhere between the Marina and the Earth Discovery Center, but never managed to actually see it. Finally a park visitor, Richard Gentry, managed to snap a photo and kindly offered to share it:The patches of normally colored fur on the belly and dark eyes indicate that this squirrel is probably leucistic rather than albino. Albino animals have reddish eyes, while leucistic animals usually have normally pigmented eyes. This squirrel seems to be surviving well so far, but abnormally colored wild animals are often easier targets for predators due to their lack of camouflage. He or she also appears to be a fox squirrel, the common species found in the park.

The mutations that cause albinism, leucism, and other similar conditions can occur in humans, birds, fish, reptiles, insects...pretty much any creature that possesses color pigments. Many of our domestic animals, such as rabbits, chickens, and laboratory rats and mice, have been deliberately bred to produce white animals.

Several years ago I raised a litter of orphaned opossums with one leucistic baby, who stayed with me as an educational opossum:

For some animals, like polar bears, snowy owls, and mountain goats, having white fur or feathers is a survival advantage, not a liability, allowing them to adapt and survive in cold and snowy climates. A few, such as the Arctic fox and snowshoe hare, can even shed their fur and change from brown to white as the seasons change!

Check out this website if you'd like to see more photos of these fascinating "Ghosts of Nature"

http://www.lifeinthefastlane.ca/35-ghosts-of-nature-albino-animals-of-the-wild/weird-science

Indian Pipes

Down at the end of the Pin Oak Trail I was excited to discover a group of strange pale plants that have emerged from the ground in the last few weeks. They look like they might be mushrooms, but these are actually flowering plants known as Indian Pipes, Monotropa uniflora. Indian Pipes are parasitic on a fungus that is in a mutualistic relationship with a tree. Since they get all of their energy from the fungus (who gets it from the tree) Indian Pipes do not need green chlorophyll to make sugar from sunlight, hence their pale white coloration. If you tilt the flower up slightly, you can see the yellow pollen, proving that these are indeed flowers, and not mushrooms.
For more detailed information on Indian Pipes and their weird and wonderful lifestyle, try these links:

http://www.curiousnature.info/A1-Indian%20Pipe.htm

http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/oct2002.html