All photos provided by Charlie Hoessle.
by Don Corrigan
Travelers over the Mississippi River from Missouri to Illinois are greeted with a billboard urging them to drive 140 miles to see the white squirrels. Charlie Hoessle can visit with the albino critters right in his south St. Louis County backyard.
Hoessle is best known to St. Louisans for his past work as director of the St. Louis Zoo. In that position, he became familiar with deadly snakes of Asia, lumbering giraffes from Africa, and poisonous frogs of South America – as well as other exotic animals.
Now retired, Hoessle is content these days with simply tracking the feisty squirrels in his Sunset Hills neighborhood. However, these are not just your average, ordinary, run-of-the-mill squirrels. These are the relatively rare white squirrels of North America.
Hoessle has no need to travel miles to see his favorite white squirrels. He can just amble out the back door of his home.
“We have had white squirrels in our back yard for about five or 6 years now, but not always the same ones,” said Hoessle. “The first one I named ‘Spirit.’ He was a daily visitor to my patio bird feeder.”
Hoessle has a fond place in his heart for ‘Spirit.’ However, he welcomes the new white squirrels to his location, and he often has his camera or cell phone ready to snap pictures of the bushy tails.
“I loved Spirit because he was not afraid of me,” said Hoessle. “He loved to bask on our crab apple tree and just relax. Sometimes I spread cracked corn on my patio for him.”
Hoessle said his current white squirrel visitor is shy, and rarely comes up on the patio. Nevertheless, he can be seen in the Hoessle’s lower backyard and the woods behind that site.
White Squirrels Of Olney
White Squirrels in the town of Olney, located in southeast Illinois, have turned the small hamlet into a tourist stop. There is a white squirrel monument in Olney’s downtown.
Olney conducts a squirrel parade and what is tagged as a “Squirrel Scamper” event for youngsters. Numerous squirrel happenings take place in the town with a population of 8,500, which brands itself in tourism materials as “The Home of White Squirrels.”
To preserve and protect the white squirrel population, Olney counts the critters annually in its White Squirrel Count. In October, volunteers help count them in different areas of town.
The squirrel count has taken place for 45 years. The results have been encouraging in recent years with the average number of white squirrels increasing from 64 to 73. The population of albino squirrels appears to be on the rise.
White squirrels are a natural phenomenon caused by a genetic mutation. The white squirrel’s presence has environmental implications, though they’re not necessarily directly linked to environmental change.
The white squirrels are quite vulnerable to predators. White squirrels are more easily spotted by predators, which can impact their survival in natural, less urbanized environments.
(To learn more about white squirrels, check out Don Corrigan’s book “Nuts About Squirrels: The Rodents That Captured Popular Culture.” Corrigan presents lectures, such as “Squirrels: Icons of the Midwest,” presented at the annual Midwest Popular Culture Conference.)
Environmental Echo 