10 year old shot a Hybrid squirrel?

My 10 year lod was hunting squirrels while I was hunting deer with my 12 year old. When I got to the truck he was very excited to show me one of his two squirrels. It was red but more of a chocolate that red but after 2"of tail it was a gray squirrels tail. It was just slightly larger than the gray he also had killed but just a little. He figured it was mixed half gray half red. I say I agree but have never seen anything like it or heard of it.

I saw a pie ball red and blacks before but never heard of anything like this.

It's fur was gone/thin at the base of its tail but even so I put it in the freezer thinking about mounting it.

I can txt pictures to anyone interested in seeing them if you pm me the #.

Do you guys have fox squirrels in your area? They are a little larger than gray squirrels and are somewhat similar to what you are describing.

Fox and gray squirrels are enemies, so a hybrid seems unlikely?

Maybe in Indiana they are bipartisan...

Why don't you post a picture...?

I’m thinking you have 2 species of squirrels, fox and gray. Also guessing what you call red is a fox. Your son shot a gray squirrel that has a color abnormality. Fox squirrels are noticeably larger than gray and more red than any gray would be.
We have red squirrels in Alaska and they are noticeably smaller than either the fox or gray!

As I understand it, they will commonly cross breed where populations overlap. I see cross's frequently.

cool bet He's happy

If it was a “hybrid” the grey was definitely taken against its will, lol! Down here in the South they all overlap and greys know better than to get around fox squirrels.

Never heard of them crossing
Have plenty of melanistic (black) ones around here

Fox squirrels can come in a wide range of colors pic would be nice.

Couple of thoughts on this. Possibly transitioning from one to the other or a nonbinary squirrel.

Yes, and I believe the proper pronoun would be Square Hole.

Around here the gray/blacks can come in a wide range of mixed colors including yellow/red. There's a group of young black and grays with red back/hindquarter flank (like youd see on a red squirrel) and red tails running around outside my office most days. in the past some of them had more yellowish tails like youd see on a fox but i havent seen that variation this year. every couple of weeks the hawk will show up and chase them around

We have about a 40 square mile area near me that has a lot of white squirrels (gray squirrels). They are not albino. There eyes are not pink. The town even has a white squirrel festival every year.

I sent a picture to Donnie H but he can't post pics either. To bad because his son. Is taking some nice deer. One a pie ball.


We have fox, red,and grays according to our DNR. I always just thought reds and fox were the same untill a few years ago

Brevard , NC

Been there , seen the squirrels. Lots of waterfalls there too. Pretty area.

Look in the archives on posting pictures

It's a 3 step process right off your phone

If you send the pic to yotetrapper@gmail.com I'll post it for you.

Sent if it works. Threw in a handle bar pict since you asked about that on the other thread. Don't bother posting that ugly mug.

It didn't work, lol. I didn't get it.

Not all phones, my cheap Trac phone won't post photos on this site. Had quite a few people try but no go

Posting pics for Providence Farm




PF - I was only able to post 2 out of the 3 pics you sent me. 3rd pic it says the file is too big and I cannot resize it.

Well I'm tec challenged. I will try again later. Heading in for a meeting with the pastor. But I should have some time to try to figure it out when deer hunting with my 12 year old this evening.

Cool. I was able to resize and crop the 3rd photo for Providence Farm

Definitely a neat looking squirrel. Maybe a color phase gray?

I finally got the pics, btw, now that they're not needed LOL

Very odd for sure

I'd have it mounted

Think I'd keep that one too

Another vote for a mount. Congratulations to the boy!

Even with the bald spot on the tail? I had my daughter's first squirrel mounted. I cut burrow with a hole in it off an oak to have it mounted on. The guy mounted it so the hole was facing down but trees grow up not down.
I put it on the wall. It's still there at my other house my inlaws live in now. It's got large parched of fur that fell out. I guess the guy did a poor job on some part of mounting it. She was 7 and is 30 now so it's been a while but my deer mounts that are older don't have nay problems but they were done by a different guy.

What's the consensus? Color faze or hybrid? I was thinking hybrid due to the slightly larger size and more chocolate color belly and the 100% gray back part tail. But it a complete guess and in no squirrel or genetic expert.

I would think a taxidermist could just cut out that bad spot of tail and shorten it a bit?

Congrats to the boy.

Once-in-a-lifetime thing , I'd mount it.

pictures man we need pic.

fox squirrel for my vote ( with the red belly)
the different tail colours come in when there has been a bruise or mite infection and the hair roots are effected. /new hair grows back but usually white

It's neat but for the cost of mounting it you could take a day off work and take the kids hunting again. I'm to cheap for taxidermy.

That squirrel come from Dr Merows grafting lab.

They crossbreed here regularly.

I'm sure what you're describing is a crossbreed. It sounds like what we get here when they cross.

I agree with having it mounted. That has the right size to be a fox squirrel, but the color is wrong. The tail is the color of a grey squirrel. Bizarre, that's for sure.

Dont hold your breathe for any wildlife department to agree with you. Even in fox squirrel nation, there is a refusal to accept that a fox squirrel and a gray squirrel will mate. Very cool to sew though, we have them here and are nice to see. To me they are the best of both worlds, gray squirrel can defend itself more, while the bigger size and color of the fox squirrel lends itself to better eating. Anybody a big time squirrel hunter here?

Its one of my true loves, but man it sure is hard sometimes!

I can tell you with certainty there is no “crossbreeding” here with our greys and fox squirrels. They act like mortal enemies here. And if that’s a fox squirrel, he’s tiny. I don’t see much of a difference in body size with the pics. Our fox squirrels here are quite large. They’ll keep deer and greys off a feeder in a heartbeat. I’ve watched three greys go after a fox squirrel and the fox squirrel whooped two and the third wanted nothing to do with it. We may have different names for squirrels than y’all do. I know I’ve seen some crazy looking squirrels in Washington and Idaho.

Here's one my son shot this fall. We have fox, gray, and reds, but I've never seen one like this before

I know that Red Squirrels and Grey Squirrels here don't get along.Cant say for Fox Squirrels cause we don't have any here.Wish we did.

Shark, that looks like a cross for sure. In my area of NC we have Grey's and a few fox squirrel. Where I have hunted in Illinois there are reds and Grey squirrels. Where my wife is from in Ontario, they have black ones that are about the same size as the reds I have seen. The reds and the blacks are bigger than the Grey's but not as big as what I call a fox squirrel. I think a lot of Yankees call reds foxes imo from what I've seen posted here before

In my town, west central Ill., the gray and fox squirrels mix all the time. Makes for some weird colors.

Jim, I have hunted for years in Pike co. It is wrapped up w squirrels for sure. The hardwood forest out there sure supports a lot more than NC pine woods

We have grays, fox, and reds. Reds are much more common than fox but dew around here know the difference.

I didn't untill a few years ago when I saw a fox squirrel in a basswood behind the barn. Was the biggest squirrel I ever saw. My entire life I had been calling all thr reds fox and never knew the difference tell them.

I could be totally wrong but…our grey squirrels will color up like that when they’re in walnuts. They’ll take on the red colored belly and often end up staining the coats. Soon as the walnuts dry up, they’ll start getting their natural color back. Not saying that’s the case here but the last pic posted certainly looks like what we get with the staining. Just throwing it out there.