Firetop

A few months back I spotted the unusual sight of a white squirrel skipping around Dorking’s churchyard. At first glance I thought it was a Sainsbury’s carrier bag blowing about, but soon realized that it was a more unusual member of the Sciuridae family. Suzie_Q managed to catch the sighting on her mobile camera a few days later, but the quality isn’t great I’m afraid. Upon looking up these white freaks, I found some information that said the odds of a white squirrel being born are 1 in 100,000. However, I also found some information that said they often live in small albino colonies (which would seem to contradict the 1 in 100,000 statistic).

Usually a white colouring on a ‘non snow-dwelling’ animal would mean these oddities provide easy pickings for predators, especially when combined with the fact that they do not see or hear as well as other squirrels. But there is a modern school of thought that says the white coat provides better camouflage against modern buildings when living in an urban environment. So perhaps that’s why the churchyard (which is in the town centre) is home to Dorking’s unusual resident albino rodent.

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