Black squirrel and other Boston sights

[urbpan]

As I crossed from Beacon st over to the Esplanade (at Kenmore Square) I saw my first ever Boston specimen of a melanistic Sciurus carolinensis.

As long as I have involved North Station in my commute, I have admired this Betula papyrifera, growing from this improbable location: the elevated Green Line platform.
Not an Ailanthus, not even a Norway Maple, but a paper birch. It wasn't planted by any human hand, but its seed chose a crack in between steel and concrete some years ago. It would be nice to think that it will be carefully removed and replanted before they demolish the remaining el tracks, but I doubt that will happen (or even that it would survive such a transplantation).



Here's my view out the train window at North Station:


The rest of my day in photographs will be at mycology, once I dig up all the correct names.

Comments

[rwblackbird.livejournal.com]

It is interesting.

The squirrel population in the suburbs of Toronto have melanistic individuals in the majority.
In the suburbs of Montreal, they are a rare minority.

Do you know why that is?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

No.

But not knowing won't prevent me from saying something on the subject.
Melanism is a mutation that in a non-urban population would be an evolutionary disadvantage: a black squirrel is an easy target on a grey tree or the brown ground. Since the main predator of urban squirrels is automobiles, which kill them without regard to color, melanism is not a disadvantage to them.

Urban squirrels will approach humans for handouts, as well, and if the humans like the novelty of a black squirrel, those squirrels may get preferential feeding. This is the "pretty pigeon" effect, where unusual colored pigeons are deliberately fed more than dull ones. Humans become agents in evolution, encouraging attractive mutants.

Perhaps Torontoans prefer attractive mutants more than Montrealeans, at least when it comes to squirrels.

unrelated, but look at this

[richmackin.livejournal.com]

http://www.livejournal.com/community/found_objects/1627492.html?#cutid1

Re: unrelated, but look at this

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Nice white roach pix!

I had no idea so many people hated bugs so much.

Re: unrelated, but look at this

[richmackin.livejournal.com]

there was a discussion on the Buddhist community about people "saving" bugs. Finally, I asked "save from what" at which it become clear people meant "not killing it myself."

Re: unrelated, but look at this

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

One would hope that part of the process of becoming a Buddhist would be reprogramming all of your default settings that are currently set to "kill."

Re: unrelated, but look at this

[richmackin.livejournal.com]

One guy had a point about a few encounters with scorpions, but other than that, there was a lot of "but bugs are icky, can we kill them" I pointed out bugs aren't icky- one only might perceive bugs to be icky.