Puurrrple Squirrels!!
Posted by: Loren Coleman on February 10th, 2012
Yep, what a week. This has been an intensive few days of an Icelandic “River monster” on tape, an old Ohio trailcam Bigfoot, “Woolly Mammoth” footage, and a “Black Leopard” tape, so why not a purple squirrel? Difference is, the people that saw this strangely colored critter actually caught it.
A couple in central Pennsylvania found a very unusual critter in their backyard — a purple squirrel.
Percy Emert said he and his wife, Connie, have cage-like traps in their yard to keep squirrels away from the bird feeders. Percy Emery then releases the squirrels into the woods away from his home but joked that sometimes they make it back to his house before he does.
“I came home (one day recently) and my wife said, ‘You’re not going to believe it but I saw a purple squirrel in the yard,'” he said Thursday. “So I put out a trap with a couple of peanuts inside.”
Before too long, the squirrel came back and found itself in the trap Sunday.
What they found in the trap was a purple squirrel. After keeping the squirrel around for a few days so neighbors could take a look at the strange creature, Percy Elmert released the squirrel back into the wild Tuesday night.
Purple squirrels are rare animals, indeed, but they now have their own Facebook page. And they have been reported before. A purple squirrel was sighted in Minnesota in 1997, and photographed (above) by Maren Nelsen Beckman. In 2008, a purple squirrel (below) appeared near the Meoncross School in Stubbington, Hampshire, UK.
Of course, in the past, at Cryptomundo, we have spent some time on albino and melanistic, even black and white, squirrels (see here and here). It only seems fair to note purple ones this week.
Thanks for the heads up (that’s a purple heads up, of course) about this Jersey Shore 2012 purple squirrel, sent to Cryptomundo, from Susan Cherico and Philip A Compher.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
seems like a good time to mention this link I stumbled on about a newly born purple cowhttp://www.crystalinks.com/purplecalf112.html
The squirrels look so much like what an old print would change to that I have to wonder if it isn’t a photoshop type thing, where the selected area (the squirrel) is put through one of those film-emulating filters.
It’s either a Purple Squirrel or a Brown Bear with a large fish in it’s mouth.
Okay Crypto-readers: object lesson.
The couple who caught the Purple Squirrel did something that Bigfoot hunters have not: they CAUGHT what they were hunting for. Some, perhaps most Bigfoot hunters no doubt recognize that this is one of the proper ways to bring a new species recognition, but many do not seem either able or willing to do so, relying on videotape and reports on solely absolute terms. No, this couple did the right thing: they caught it. Without a body, major part of a body (bones, pelt, skull) or a live specimen (as above), you have nothing. Nada. Nilch. Zip. Nonca. Nothing. Zero. Oblivion. I could go on.
Now comes the bad part: they set it loose (Dag-Nabbit!). Folks, if you somehow find and catch a live Cryptid, like a Lake Monster, Sasquatch, Horned Jackal or whatever it is you caught or think you caught, keep it until it is at least identified, and whatever happens, do not let it dissappear, like the Minaret Skull. And DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT LET IT GO! DO NOT FREE WILLY!!!
Thankfully, this seems almost 100% certain that the animal caught was an otherwise common Squirrel that had attained its unusual hair color through unusual means, such as chewing on pens or something else odd. Maybe some devilish three year old somehow doused it with food coloring. Therefore, though the mystery of its Purple-pelt origin remains unsolved, its species seems, so far as is written, to not be doubted.
However, if this occurred with a new species of squirrel, to say nothing of a new species of Megafauna (Bergman’s Bear, Mokele-Mbembe, etc), it would be a scientific mortal sin to let the animal loose without proper species cataloging. Perhaps it should remain in captivity after it is discovered to further learn about the species. Either way, one should never let such a new wonder of God’s creation escape human detection and documentation. Please don’t let anything you catch loose if it is possible that what you have is a new species or subspecies.
Once you find it, keep it.
They eat real good!!
My dad used to live trap squirrels and spray their tails florescent pink before he let them go in a patch of forest a few miles away. He always said he was giving them a chance at a new life and if he ever saw a pink tailed squirrel in our yard, he was going to get the .22 and end the little bastard.
Wait. My purple gloves comment gets deleted and it was way subtle compared to these two. Lol.
Squirrels just wanna have fun.
Purple Squirrel would be a good band name!
Band name, drug name, penis synonyme. It’s the swiss tool of words.
There are albino squirrels living in Westland, MI.
Purple Squirrels? Didn’t see that one coming. Very cool pictures though. I’d love to see one of these in real life.
That is a hoax. There is no way, that color can occur naturally. You’d be surprised what 1/4 cup water and a packet of grape Kool Aid mix can do. There’s proof.
It is possible it was photoshopped, there are pixels around the critter that are either really fine fur or it shows when someone tries to capture a furry animal with the selection tool in photoshop and they color it. Fur is hard to capture in photoshop. purple just doesn’t seem something natural for squirrels to do.
Isn’t that a drink?
Well, at least the photos aren’t blurry!
I don’t really consider a known animal that is just an unusual color a cryptid. It’s just a fluke of nature. After all, it’s just a regular old squirrel, other than the color.
I never saw a purple squirrel,
I never hoped to see one….
Saw this yesterday on yahoo news.
My guess: bank-robber squirrel caught by exploding dye-pack.
Wonder if it tastes like grape? here in the great state of Nebraska we have the common grey squirrel and the occasional black squirrel that legend has it come from Iowa. Don’t know if they are hitch hiking across the Mormon Bridge or swimming across the Missouri. Either way, we get excited to see one. We’d probably pee our pants to see a purple one…..