Rare albino squirrel spotted in Waterlooville
A rare albino squirrel was seen scurrying around oak trees in Waterlooville yesterday.
The squirrel, which was completely white with pink eyes, was spotted by Michael Wornham on a small patch of green space outside his home.
Michael said a few of his neighbours had seen the squirrel before but had never managed to capture a photo of it.
‘My partner was having a cup of tea and called me out to see it,’ Michael said.
‘I grabbed my camera. It’s very rare.
‘It was just a really nice thing to see.’
According to John Goodspeed, who runs the Havant Nature website, ‘only a few white squirrels are albinos, recognizable by pink or blue eyes and the absence of pigmentation anywhere on the body.’
Speaking on his website he said: ‘The gene for such an absence of the pigment, melanin, is recessive, so each parent must carry it to produce an albino squirrel.
‘Albino squirrels have vision problems and are at a disadvantage in the wild.’
You can report sighting at havantnature.net