Anomaly!

Anomaly! Earl Plato

“White is white,” but according to Thom Gravelle, who lives on the Niagara Parkway near Townline Road, “Black is black.” Another anomaly this time reported through Thom’s e-mail with great photos included. Anomaly is a word I often use in reporting. To me it means something different, a deviation from the normal. What does a chipmunk look like? You can picture it with reddish brown back with white stripes and a dark band down its centre with an upright tail as it heads toward a feeder. Thom Gravelled gave me four photos of his resident chipmunk. It’s totally black! I quote his message. “This black chipmunk has been living under our deck with a pair of friendly skunks for the past year. He started to reappear two weeks ago and now visits our bird feeders several times a day. We used to have two regular chipmunks visit us but we have not seen then since this little fellow made an appearance.”
Thom adds that anybody they have spoken to has never heard of a “black” occurrence in the chipmunk species. He ends that most claim that it is a baby black squirrel but it hasn’t changed in more than a year. The excellent photos are prove enough for me.