Albino squirrel a rare sight
Dear Readers, Search Engine received this cool photo of an albino squirrel from St. Catharines reader Linzi de Groot. “Thought this might interest some readers. He’s a regular visitor behind our North St Kitts ravine home. Cute eh?!” Cute indeed and it lead us to a question of our own:
Q: Just how rare is an albino squirrel? Is life more difficult for them than black or grey squirrels?
A: If you’re lucky enough to spot an albino squirrel, you’ve had an unusual sighting indeed.
Lincoln County Humane Society executive director Kevin Strooband said he’s only seen two in his career in Montebello Park in St. Catharines and in Niagara-onthe-Lake.
Welland SPCA animal care manager Tammy Gaboury said she’d never heard of one in that area.
So we checked with Hobbitstee Wildlife Refuge in Jarvis, which both agencies send injured wildlife to for recovery.
“They’re quite rare,” said Chantal Theijn, an authorized wildlife custodian at Hobbitstee. “One every so often will pop up.”
Theijn said albino squirrels have shorter life expectancies because they aren’t camouflaged like the Eastern grey squirrel normally seen in the area. That means easy pickings for birds of prey.
“White sticks out like a sore thumb and squirrels stand out for predators,” Theijn said, adding even in the winter they are more obvious in trees than other squirrels.
She said albino animals tend to have less robust immune systems as well, which is another factor in life expectancy.
A common Eastern grey squirrels lives about three to four years in the wild, she said.
Hobbitstee Wildlife Refugee is a non-profit, volunteer organization that is licenced with Canadian Wildlife Service and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.
It cares for 1,600 animals a year, taking in all wildlife species except bears from a large area of Ontario that includes Niagara, Norfolk, Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph and more.
Q: I was wondering what the wide white road markings mean on the inbound lanes of the 420 between the Frederica entrance/exit and Stanley Avenue in Niagara Falls?
A: The white lines on Hwy. 420 are supposed to create a bit of an optical illusion.
Ministry of Transportation spokeswoman Astrid Poei said the lines are perceptual pavement markings. They’re designed to slow down drivers from freeway speeds as they approach the traffic signals at Stanley Avenue.
The lines are perpendicular to the lines at the edges of the road and get increasingly longer as drivers move forward. That design is supposed to give drivers the feeling that the lane narrows, which promotes the idea of slowing down.
Q: I would like to know what the pink paint on the sidewalks on McColl Drive in Niagara Falls and other streets in Rolling Acres subdivision is for.
A: The paint, which is technically a purple, is used by the city of Niagara Falls to point out deficiencies in the sidewalk.
Marianne Tikky, Niagara Falls manager of roadways, said the marks are used to point out cracks, heaves or anything else outside of the minimum maintenance standards and draw pedestrians’ attention to it.
Once identified, city crews come back and fix the problems, whether it involves a grind, patch or replacement.
The sidewalks throughout the city are checked every year for deficiencies.
Tikky said they have 16 months to fix them according to provincial minimum maintenance standards, but the city tries to get everything repaired within one year if possible.
She explained the purple paint was chosen because it is distinct from the other paint colours used to locate utility markings in the ground.
Send your queries to Karena Walter by email at kwalter@postmedia.com; by Twitter @karena_ standard or through Facebook at www.facebook.com/karenawalter