Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation. This is Forest Stories.
I'm the Poet in the Forest, a children's series that I pinned out
in the nineteen nineties. Now, none of it would be possible if it
wasn't for this forest right here in South Arlotte, North Carolina. I talk
about it so much that I thought maybe it's time that you get to know
what has inspired me for thirty years. Thanks for being a part of the
conversation. Welcome back to the forest. We got to talk about the squirrels.
I mean, every city has a squirrel, right They have their own
style of squirrels. There are portions of North Carolina that have bright white squirrels,
but we've always seen the light brown squirrels with the big bushy tails.
Well, in this section of the forest, Rainbow Forest, believe it or
not, we have jet black squirrels, I mean, as dark as all
can be. And they're not like the other squirrels. These squirrels don't mind
taking on the hawk the owl. It's almost like there's a relationship between the
black squirrels and the bright red cardinals. The cardinals sing as loud as they
can, which brings in the very protective crow. But those black squirrels are
so amazing in their flight, the chances they take leaping from tree to tree,
or for that matter, the chances they take by jumping up and grabbing
the bird seed. But I've built up a relationship with our black squirrels in
the way that we have all of this unused bird food because of the blue
crown conyer, because of the doves, and I take it outside and I
share it with the black squirrels as a way of saying thank you for being
unique in your own way and so giving and your ability to teach so many
people to grow forward by looking at the obstacle that's standing in front of you,
mister black squirrel, and not fearing how high you are or how low
it will suddenly become. But I've done some research on the black squirrel.
Black squirrels are a darker shade of gray and can be found in many areas
of North America. Their black combination, their black colorization is likely due to
a gene variant that originated from inbreeding between gray squirrels and fox squirrels. So
we've had a fox squirrel here. Now the story gets bigger. There's a
mystery here. How is it that this one area which may have included that
fox squirrel, has created a black squirrel? But bye, But but here's
the thing. It clearly states it's not the color black, but rather dark
gray. It is said that many black squirrels come from the UK. Do
you know how far Rainbow Forest is from the UK? Did somebody bring it
here as a pet and then set it free? How did this one section
of the forest get its black squirrels? And a brave black squirrel? It
is he Thanks for being a part of the conversation.