I was driving on Tracey Grove Road recently when a flash of white caught my eye. Actually, it was three flashes of white. There in someone’s front yard were three white squirrels foraging in the grass. It was both surprising and a bit magical.

White squirrel, photo by Robert Chest, 2023

As I drove on, I began to wonder about the origin of the white squirrels. Where do they live? What is the biological explanation for their bright white coats? How prevalent are they? And how in the world do they survive in a world full of predators while being so incredibly conspicuous wherever they go?

As it turns out, I am not the first to wonder about these vitally important questions. There is even the White Squirrel Institute in our neighboring town of Brevard. Here is what I have learned. -bh

The Legend of the White Squirrels of Brevard

Let’s start with the legend, which a certain Ms. Mull and the entire populace of Brevard seems to have embraced as the Gospel according to Rocky (the Squirrel). To be honest, you can’t blame them - it is a compelling story, the little fellows are darn cute, and they’ve successfully built a small tourism industry around people’s fascination with the white squirrels that frolic in their trees and parks.

The city of Brevard even has a page on its website dedicated to the little white critters.

The legend goes that Brevard’s white squirrels originated from a carnival animal truck. According to Brevard resident Mrs. W.E. Mull, a pair of white squirrels was given to her brother-in-law, H.H. Mull, by Mr. Black of Madison, Florida, in 1949. A carnival truck had overturned near Black’s home, and the squirrels were caught by Mr. Black when he observed them playing in his pecan grove.

Fact or Fiction?

***Barbara Mull Lang. The Transylvania Times, Brevard N.C. Monday, June 6, 2005***

Our culture certainly embraces the mantra, “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story”, but are the white squirrels we see really all descendants of the survivors of an overturned carnival truck in a pecan grove in Florida? That certainly seems like a tall bushy white tale on first blush. But a resident of Brevard, Barbara Mull Lang bravely stepped forward to give a first-person account of the origin of white squirrels in Brevard. As reported in the Transylvania Times, she wrote:

I, Barbara Mull, was born in a two-story house on the corner of Caldwell and King Streets. (Brevard). When I was around ten years old my Uncle Harry and Aunt Mary came home for Christmas and stayed with us since we had extra bedrooms. Uncle Harry had a cage with two white squirrels that he put in our living room.

He said his friend, Mr. M. Black, gave him the squirrels in return for his help capturing them in his pecan orchard located in Madison, Fl. Mr. Black said the squirrels escaped when a circus caravan was involved in an accident. The circus moved on without the white squirrels.

I asked Uncle Harry if he was going to take the white squirrels up in the forest and let them go. He said no he didn’t want to do that. He was afraid they would not survive in the wild because of their white color. He said he was hoping he could find someone who wanted them and would take care of them. I said I would take care of them, and that I wanted them. He said he was hoping I would want them and gave them to me. However, my daddy said they could not stay in the house, and built a large cage for them and placed it outside in the backyard. (2)

A cage was duly constructed, and Barbara cared for the squirrels until her family moved to Florida. Safekeeping of the pair, whom she had named Snowball and Frisky, fell to her grandfather (Papa). When Barbara’s family later returned to Brevard for a visit, she received some bad news.

One week when we came home to visit, I went over to see my white squirrels and my cousin Dottie said she had some bad news to tell me. She said while Papa was feeding the squirrels one day, he accidentally let one escape. She said the one left looked so lonely that Papa felt sorry for it and let it go too.  I loved my grandfather so much I couldn’t be angry with him, and I knew he didn’t do it on purpose. I was just so very concerned that my squirrels would get run over by a car or killed by some dog or cat. (2)

As it turned out, Snowball and Frisky, were more than capable of fending for themselves in the wild. In fact, within a few years, there were an increasing number of reports of white squirrels seen in Brevard. People enjoyed seeing them and with time, the City of Brevard passed an ordinance protecting them. Barbara Mull Lang concluded her letter with:

And I am thankful the people of Brevard have come to love the white squirrels as I did and have adopted them as Brevard’s White Squirrels. Yes, it is true the white squirrels began in Brevard and the first pair of white squirrels was mine. (2)

The fact that Ms. Mull had two white squirrels in Brevard in the 1950s seems legitimate. As to whether Snowball and Frisky were the survivors of a tragic carnival truck accident, that seems less probable and more a colorful embellishment of a simpler explanation. As reported on the website of the Transylvania County Library website:

There is evidence to suggest that a native population of white squirrels had been in that Florida pecan grove as a natural occurrence of the area, and their prolific nature presented Mr. Black with an economic opportunity that would be enhanced if he could convince potential buyers that the animals were exotic. Many articles from northern Florida in the 1930s indicated that sightings of non-albino white squirrels were occurring with some frequency there. (3)

With an enigmatic name like “Mr. Black”, it is not hard to believe that the legend of the white squirrels in Brevard is mostly true with a clever twist for a bit of additional spice.

How did the White Squirrels get to Henderson County?

Two words. Time and fecundity.

Squirrels typically have two litters per year of 2 to 4 babies. So, give a pair of white squirrels and their descendants 70 years to procreate and seek out new habitats to call home, and you end up with white squirrel sightings within a 50-mile radius of Brevard. Just ask those three squirrels I saw on Tracey Grove Rd.

The White Squirrel Institute in Brevard

How can you tell if Brevard is serious about its squirrels? The fact that it has been home to the White Squirrel Institute since 1997 speaks volumes. As reported by the library website:

As white squirrels became more and more popular, a local professor took an interest and saw an opportunity to study them more fully. The White Squirrel Institute was started by Robert Glesner in 1997. He was an Associate Professor of Biology, Emeritus, Brevard College. B.S., University of Maryland (Zoology); M.S. (Zoology) and Ph.D. (Biological Sciences), University of Michigan. He rallied college students to start the first annual White Squirrel Count, which continues into the present. This tally has shown that the white squirrel population makes up an astounding third of all the squirrels in Brevard city limits.

What started as a guided research project for college students grew into an independent research initiative led by Dr. Glesner. The corresponding website for the institute is a treasure trove for information about the biology of these unique creatures and was utilized for this article. It can be found at https://whitesquirrelinstitute.org. Although Dr. Glesner passed away in 2013, the institute and his research live on with sponsorship from the Heart of Brevard. (3)

Are the White Squirrels Albino?

No. From the White Squirrel Institute website:

Contrary to popular thought, white squirrels are not albinos but rather a variant of the Eastern gray squirrel. Most commonly these animals have a mostly snowy white coat but dark eyes, a condition known as leucistic characterized by reduced pigmentation in animals caused by a recessive gene. If both the male and female carry the recessive gene, there is the possibility of white offspring. A litter of squirrels may have babies with both normal and white coloration.

Brevard’s white squirrels are unique because their coats are mostly white but there is a distinctive head patch and dorsal stripe that broadens in the shoulder region. The head patch can be solid, horseshoe, or doughnut-shaped; it may resemble a triangle, a diamond, deer tracks, or even a widow’s peak (Count Dracula). They have dark eyes and there is some evidence that this pattern is inherited. (4)

How do white squirrels survive in the wild?

There are a number of theories here. First, it is very beneficial to a squirrel’s lifespan if they have the law on their side.

Brevard is one of the only towns to officially designate and protect the squirrels, with sanctuary protection and regulation in 1986. No one is allowed to take them, kill them, or bother them in any way. (5)

There are two other interesting theories floated. First, white squirrels are easier for motorists to see and are therefore less susceptible to the most common cause of urban squirrel demise – being run over on the road. Second, their unusual coloration makes them less recognizable to natural predators who are used to looking for grey squirrels, not white ones. Perhaps the white squirrels are, as they say, hiding in plain sight!

The Squirrel Wars

Pisgah Penny predicted six more weeks of winter in 2024

Brevard loves their squirrels, but they are not the only municipality that has embraced the furry white creatures. At least five different towns tout white squirrels as their claim to fame.

Kenton, Tennessee claims that their white squirrels were left by a Gypsy caravan in 1869 – making them the oldest claimant to the title of White Squirrel Town, USA.

Olney, Illinois humbly calls itself “The White Squirrel Capital of the World” and because its squirrels are true albino squirrels, they tend to look upon towns like Brevard with a certain degree of disdain. Laws on the Olney books give the squirrels right-of-way on every street; residents are fined if they try to leave town with one. Local police patches bear an outline of a bushy-tailed albino. (Big Squirrel is watching you.)

Marionville, Missouri, also calls itself Home of the White Squirrels and fines anyone $500 who tries to trap or sell one. The origin of the squirrels is a sensitive subject for Marionville, where the local lore is that Olney's first white squirrels were in fact kidnapped from Marionville.

The northernmost white squirrel enclave is over the border in Canada. The town of Exeter, Ontario appears bent on total White Squirrel Supremacy, celebrating an annual White Squirrel Festival and cheerily publicizing their pale pals. There's even a song and a music video.

Still, those of us living in western North Carolina know in our hearts that the true Home of the White Squirrel is Brevard. There is the White Squirrel Institute started by an honest-to-God scientist, they pull out all the stops for their White Squirrel Festival each May, and they even have a celebrity white squirrel.

Local celebrity squirrel Pisgah Pete was famous for predicting Super Bowl winners. Pisgah Pete also had a knack for forecasting if Brevard was in for an early spring or a long winter. He retired in 2022 and was replaced by his niece, the capable Pisgah Penny, who inherited the family's unique prognostication skills. Predictions are made on White Squirrel Day, which occurs each year on February 2nd, and is sometimes mistakenly referred to as "Groundhog Day." (1)

Pisgah Penny correctly predicted that the Kansas City Chiefs would win last year’s Super Bowl. However, that feels less like prophecy and more like a squirrel that appreciated the generational talent of KC’s quarterback, Patrick Mahomes.

**Pisgah Penny.** Photo credit: White Squirrel Institute

As for the idea of changing February 2nd to White Squirrel Day, I just can’t see Bill Murray’s greatest movie achieving such lofty cinematic heights with the title, “White Squirrel Day.” No disrespect to Snowball and Frisky, but it just doesn’t have the same cache. Still, you have to admire Brevard’s all-in commitment to the small white rodents.

So, as you go through your day here in Henderson County, keep your eyes peeled for descendants of Snowball and Frisky. They are special creatures indeed.

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Need more white squirrel info? Check out the White Squirrel Institute’s FAQ page here.

References:

(1) City of Brevard, https://www.cityofbrevard.com/481/White-Squirrels

(2) Transylvania Times, https://www.transylvaniatimes.com/features/picturing-the-past-white-squirrels-of-brevard/

(3) Transylvania Country Library, https://library.transylvaniacounty.org/the-white-squirrels-of-brevard/

(4) White Squirrel Institute, https://whitesquirrelinstitute.org/

(5) Petekey.com, https://www.petekey.com/famous-white-squirrels-brevard-nc/