Mutant white squirrels seen in Brevard
Near the end of her Sunday morning run, Indialantic resident Katrina Wasson noticed a strange snow-white animal — a squirrel — patrolling the grass in a Riverside Drive yard, not far from Paradise Boulevard. Wasson gasped, grabbed her phone, and snapped photos of the ghostly rodent.
“At the same instant, it stopped to look at me like, ‘What are you doing?’” recalled the retired office manager.
White squirrel sightings near Indialantic and beachside Melbourne may be on the rise, said Penny Shellhorn-Schutt.
She is co-administrator of the Facebook group “Indialantic: Our Little Barrier Island,” which has nearly 1,200 members. Last month, Shellhorn-Schutt took three pictures of a pale squirrel chewing a peanut in a tree in a neighborhood off Pine Tree Drive. She posted the photos under this caption: “Elusive white Indialantic squirrel sighting!”
“People don’t believe it. They think they’re fake pictures. But they’re out there,” said Shellhorn-Schutt, who owns Good Clean Fun Soaps.
“One day I was on the computer, and one of the white squirrels had climbed on the screen window. I heard some strange sound, and I turned around — and it shocked me. ... We want to make sure nobody harms them. They always make you smile when you see them. It adds a boost to your day whenever you see them. They’re so unusual. I’m surprised that they’re able to survive out
there — white on green.”
Wasson said she has also witnessed white squirrels along South Patrick Drive near Gleason Park in Indian Harbour Beach.
Keith Winsten, executive director of the Brevard Zoo, expressed surprise that white squirrels inhabit the barrier island.
“I’ve never seen them or heard of them in Brevard County. That doesn’t mean they’re not there, but I’ve never heard of them. It could be a white squirrel that’s been introduced from another area, but it’s more likely a mutation,” he said.
“People don’t believe it. They think they’re fake pictures. But they’re out there.”
Penny Shellhorn-Schutt