Strange squirrel in Gorky Park

[Pianorak]

Squirrel and Chinese tourists in Gorky Park.

For wildlife enthusiasts! Look at this strange squirrel with grey body and red head, feet and tail.

https://www.mreporter.ru/reports/177300

[jean]

Perhaps it's just got a winter coat, like an Arctic fox?

[Serial_Apologist]

Perhaps it's just got a winter coat, like an Arctic fox?

Yes, my new winter coat is grey. The difference being that it has a herringbone pattern.

[jean]

Urban snow gets dirty very quickly - the new coat cleverly anticipates this.

[P. G. Tipps]

Maybe the result of hunky, over-sexed male Americans now outrageously cross-breeding with adoring, wide-eyed European females ... or, alternatively, could simply be an illegal immigrant from the Scottish Highlands pinching the locals' nuts?

[Pianorak]

Yes, my new winter coat is grey. The difference being that it has a herringbone pattern.

This is not your rich capitalist West! Elegant herringbone pattern in Russia? нет, товарищ.

[Richard Tarleton]

Jean is right, it's a red squirrel (very variable) in winter coat. Not a grey squirrel, or a hybrid. The tufty ears and red head, tail and paws are a giveaway (as well as the location).

[Bryn]

Jean is right, it's a red squirrel (very variable) in winter coat. Not a grey squirrel, or a hybrid. The tufty ears and red head, tail and paws are a giveaway (as well as the location).

Quite.

[Serial_Apologist]

Maybe the result of hunky, over-sexed male Americans now outrageously cross-breeding with adoring, wide-eyed European females ... or, alternatively, could simply be an illegal immigrant from the Scottish Highlands pinching the locals' nuts?

As I commented to an American friend on a stay here when she mentioned: "Those look just like our squirrels!":

Over-fed
Over-sexed
Over here

[Richard Tarleton]

Maybe the result of hunky, over-sexed male Americans now outrageously cross-breeding with adoring, wide-eyed European females ... or, alternatively, could simply be an illegal immigrant from the Scottish Highlands pinching the locals' nuts?

Mr Tipps, red and grey squrrels don't and can't interbreed, even in jest - it's really no laughing matter, as greys are carriers of, but are not affected by, squirrel pox, which is fatal to reds (infection occurring where the species's ranges abut or overlap). I'm sure this squirrel was a Russian speaker, any Scots interloper would soon be noticed, besides being well travelled.

I only saw one grey squirrel during a spell on a wildlife project in forest in Mexico (Sp. ardilla) - they keep a much lower profile there, probably for good reason.

[P. G. Tipps]

Mr Tipps, red and grey squrrels don't and can't interbreed, even in jest - it's really no laughing matter, as greys are carriers of, but are not affected by, squirrel pox, which is fatal to reds (infection occurring where the species's ranges abut or overlap). I'm sure this squirrel was a Russian speaker, any Scots interloper would soon be noticed, besides being well travelled.

I only saw one grey squirrel during a spell on a wildlife project in forest in Mexico (Sp. ardilla) - they keep a much lower profile there, probably for good reason.

Apologies, Mr Tarleton ... I was, as you rightly suspected, joking.

I don't particularly like greys either as they seem to me to be little more than bushy-tailed tree rats quite unlike the lovely wee reds which I knew so well as a boy on my occasional visits to the grounds of Brodick Castle and Dunfermline Abbey.

[Richard Tarleton]

Apologies, Mr Tarleton ... I was, as you rightly suspected, joking.

I don't particularly like greys either as they seem to me to be little more than bushy-tailed tree rats quite unlike the lovely wee reds which I knew so well as a boy on my occasional visits to the grounds of Brodick Castle and Dunfermline Abbey.

I used to see reds in places in England from where they are sadly long gone......(I lived near Dunfermline for a couple of years as a youngster - Charlestown to be precise - a long time ago now... )