#melanstic

[fyanimaldiversity]

Melanistic great blue heron (Ardea herodias) [x]

[fyanimaldiversity]

would love to see some interesting owls :]

Here is a leucistic and albino screech owl! With such large eyes it really makes the difference between the two really loud and clear!

And I’m obsessed with how melanism in owls seems to turn them dark brown rather than solid black! Here is a barn, ural, and barred owl!

[fyanimaldiversity]

Black squirrels are super common on my campus! I read somewhere that it’s a common trait in Canada (I’m just south of the border). I was wondering why it would be advantageous there, but not most of the US?

According to wiki, one of the big theories is that it is more advantageous up north to be melanistic for the extra warmth! Dark colors retain heat better, this guy looks super toasty!

I also learned that they were deliberately introduced other places in the US because people wanted to look at cool black squirrels! On my favorite iNaturalist group the main thing posted are grey squirrels, especially melanistic, I think!

[fyanimaldiversity]

!!! I wish I had a picture to show you!! In our area we have black squirrels over gray squirrels, they're almost all melanistic gray squirrels! It's just the little pocket near our house, three miles away or so the squirrels are gray again! Anyway, sometimes we see squirrels (and name them, naturally) with some weird looking coats! My favorite was always Rags, short for Ragnarthan or something, but also just because he always seemed a little tattered. He had red spots! And patches! And streaks! In his fur!! He was a black squirrel but his tail was mostly red fur, and there were bits of red going up his body from his tail, on his haunches and stopping completely by about his ribcage? I think? The front of him was black, like any other melanistic squirrel. I thought he was just the coolest! He disappeared a couple years ago, but every now and again we'll see a black squirrel with a red tail nearby, not anywhere near as complicated as Rags, but red on black nonetheless! I like to think he had some children~ I will look for pictures!! I think it was before I got my camera though-_-

He sounds cool! Did he look something like this?

[fyanimaldiversity]

Since you're taking submissions, here's my pet melanistic rainbow stag (Phalacrognathus muelleri), shown in the second image next to a male displaying the species' typical colouration!

Wow, what a beautiful baby! She’s stunning! It never occurred to me to look up melanistic beetles, I have been missing out!