| Re: colour variations
I think it's very difficult to measure how common the occurrence of colour variation is, because we rarely have an accurate measure of total population size.
Another factor that confuses things is that oddly coloured animals become 'famous' and can seem more common than they really are.
I've read several reports of albino Hedgehogs, hear regularly of black Grey Squirrels (but Cambridgeshire is the hotspot for these), seen black Rabbits, my neighbour had an infestation of Wood Mice with white feet and half white tails a few years ago. When I visited the Norwich Museum some years ago, they didn't have a specimen of an ordinary Mole - all they had were white ones, apricot ones and a half black, half white one!
Black Squirrels were deliberately introduced, and black rabbits were prized as far back as medieval times for the fur, and were presumably deliberately bred.
henrya |