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Report of an Albino Red Squirrel from Sainte-Luce, Quebec, Canada
Jean Ferron and Pierre Laplante

Northeastern Naturalist, Volume 20, Issue 4 (2013): N16–N18

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2013 Northeastern Naturalist Notes Vol. 20, No. 4 N16 J. Ferron and P. Laplante Report of an Albino Red Squirrel from Sainte-Luce, Quebec, Canada Jean Ferron1,* and Pierre Laplante2 Abstract - We report the observation of an albino male Tamiasciurus hudsonicus (Red Squirrel) from Sainte-Luce in eastern Quebec, Canada. While occurrences of entirely albino individuals have been sporadically reported in the wild in other sciurid species, true albinism is rare in T. hudsonicus. That albino sciurids can survive in the wild may be related to their relatively minor visual deficits compared to other albino mammals, which experience a greater loss of vision. The lack of pigmentation, however, may be a major disadvantage in the wild for the Red Squirrel, which is a diurnal and arboreal prey species. In conjunction with the recessive nature of albinism, it is not surprising that albino individuals are rarely reported for this species. Tamiasciurus hudsonicus Erxleben (Red Squirrel) is a small tree squirrel that populates much of the boreal forest in North America (Yahner 2003). The fur is normally rusty reddish or reddish brown on the dorsal surface, and white or grayish white on the ventral surface; the tail is rusty to yellowish rusty, and dark lateral lines demarcate dorsal and ventral fur, especially in summer (Steele 1998). Despite its abundance, relatively few cases of color aberrations have been observed in this species (Jung and Slough 2012, Steele 1998). Rare records of melanistic (Adams 1873, Benton 1958, Mengel and Jenkinson 1971), albinistic (Wood 1965) or unusual color variations, such as piebald (Layne 1954), partial albinos (Banfield 1974) or isabelline (Jung and Slough 2012) have been r eported. 1Department of Biology, Chemistry and Geography, University of Quebec at Rimouski, 225 Rang 2 ouest, Sainte-Luce, QC, Canada G5L 3A1. 2Department of Biology, Chemistry and Geography, University of Quebec at Rimouski 66 rue du Fleuve ouest, Sainte-Luce, QC, Canada G5L 3A1. *Corresponding author - jean_ferron@uqar.ca. Notes of the Northeastern Naturalist, Issue 20/4, 2013 Figure 1. Albino Red Squirrel from Sainte-Luce, Quebec, Canada, 2012. N17 2013 Northeastern Naturalist Notes Vol. 20, No. 4 J. Ferron and P. Laplante Herein we report an adult, wild albino Red Squirrel from Sainte-Luce in eastern Quebec (48°32'50"N, 68°23'32"W). Its habitat was adjacent to a residential street in the village. Its home range was located on two private properties that were planted about 40 years ago with Picea abies (L.) H. Carst (Norway Spruce) and Larix europaea DC. (European Larch). The animal was entirely white, including vibrissae, and had pinkish eyes due to the lack of pigmentation (Fig. 1). We identified it as a male from photos and direct observation. This male was first seen early June 2012 and was regularly observed at the same location through the end of October 2012 when it was killed by a vehicle on the village main road. It behaved similarly to pigmented squirrels, in that it was observed collecting, hoarding, and eating spruce and larch cones, vocalizing to advertise its territory, and grooming similarly to its conspecifics. Esteve and Jeffery (1998), who studied the retina of Sciurus carolinensis Gmelin (Gray Squirrel), suggest that squirrels are apparently the only albino mammals to survive and breed in the wild as their visual deficits are minor. They found that central cell densities in the retina were only 5% lower in the albino than in pigmented Gray Squirrels, whereas in other mammals this cell reduction within the retina could be as much as 25%. Steele and Koprowski (2001) reported that many US cities harbor populations of white S. carolinensis (albino and non-albino white morphs). The existence of these albinistic populations, however, may be due more to their locally protected status, as albinism is a recessive trait. Occurrences of entirely albino individuals have been sporadically reported in the wild in other sciurid species, such as Marmota monax L. (Woodchuck; Tenney 1871), Tamias striatus L. (Eastern Chipmunk; Zinn 1953), Sciurus aberti Woodhouse (Abert Squirrel; Keith 1965) and the Red Squirrel (Wood 1965, present study). The survival of these sciurids in the wild suggests that they too experience only a minor visual deficit compared to non-albino individuals. Albinism is present in other mammal species and some animals survive in the wild under particular circumstances that ultimately provide protection from predators, such as living in habitat that consists of dense vegetation, or being primarily nocturnal (see review in McCardle 2012) The lack of pigmentation is widely considered a major disadvantage in the wild, because an albino may be more easily detected by predators (McCardle 2012), which is certainly the case for the diurnal and arboreal Red Squirrel. In conjunction with the recessive nature of this trait, it is not surprising that albino individuals are rarely reported for this species. Acknowledgments. We are grateful to R. Dechamplain, who reported the presence of this albino squirrel in the area, and to M.H. St-Laurent for reviewing the manuscript. Useful comments and suggestions were also received from an anonymous reviewer and manuscript editor, T.J. Maier. Literature Cited Adams, A.L. 1873. Field and Forest Rambles. Henry S. King Company, London, UK. 333 pp. Banfield, A.W.F. 1974. The Mammals of Canada. The University of Toronto Press, Toronto, ON, Canada. 438 pp. Benton, A.H. 1958. Melanistic Red Squirrels from Cayuga County, New York. Journal of Mammalogy 39:445. Esteve, J.V., and G. Jeffery. 1998. Reduced retinal deficits in an albino mammal with a cone-rich retina: A study of the ganglion cell layer at the area centralis of pigmented and albino Grey Squirrels. Vision Research 38:937–940. Jung, T., and B.G. Slough. 2012. Isabelline coloration in American Red Squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) from the Yukon. Northwestern Naturalist 93:162–164. 2013 Northeastern Naturalist Notes Vol. 20, No. 4 N18 J. Ferron and P. Laplante Keith, J.O. 1965. The Abert Squirrel and its dependence on Ponderosa Pine. Ecology 46:150–163. Layne, J.N. 1954. The biology of the Red Squirrel, Tamiasciurus hudsonicus loquax (Bangs), in central New York. Ecological Monographs 24: 227–267. McCardle, H. 2012. Albinism in wild Vertebrates. M.Sc. Thesis. Texas State University, San Marcos, TX. 72 pp. Mengel, R.M., and M.A. Jenkinson. 1971. A melanistic specimen of the Red Squirrel. American Midland Naturalist 86:230–231. Steele, M.A. 1998. Tamiasciurus hudsonicus. Mammalian Species 586:1–9. Steele, M.A., and J.L. Koprowski. 2001. North American Tree Squirrels. Smithsonian Books, Washington, DC. 201 pp. Tenney, S. 1871. A white Woodchuck. The American Naturalist 4:252–253 Wood, T.J. 1965. Albino Red Squirrel collected in Wood Buffalo Park. Blue Jay 23:90. Yahner, R.H. 2003. Pine squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus and T. douglasii). Pp. 268–273, In G.A. Feldhammer, B.C. Thompson, and J.A. Chapman (Eds.). Wild Mammals of North America: Biology, Management, and Conservation. 2nd Edition. The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD. 1216 pp. Zinn, D.J. 1953. Albino chipmunks in Rhode Island. Journal of Mammalogy 35:585–586.