October 14th, 2017
Our black squirrels are directly related to the American black squirrel, first seen in the UK at Letchworth in 1912. They were originally thought to be a mutation of the grey, but their DNA matches the american ones.They were probably imported by a wealthy land owner such as the Duke of Bedford to his Woburn estate in victorian times. There are now around 25,000 in the wild in the Eastern region of the UK and although smaller than the greys they are more aggressive. How these squirrels affect the population of greys and reds is uncertain.
