Percy and Connie Emert, of Jersey Shore, Pa. caught the purple squirrel on Sunday when trying to keep birds safe from the rodents. The Emert’s took photos of the squirrel and posted on them Facebook.
Percy and Connie Emert, of Jersey Shore, Pa. caught the purple squirrel on Sunday when trying to keep birds safe from the rodents. The Emert’s took photos of the squirrel and posted on them Facebook.
The mystery of the purple squirrel is still unsolved.
A Pennsylvania couple Sunday trapped – of all things – a purple squirrel which has experts puzzled.
Percy and Connie Emert, of Jersey Shore, Pa. caught the unusual animal when trying to keep squirrels out of their bird feeders.
“We have bird feeders out in our yard, and the squirrels are constantly into them,” Connie Emert told AccuWeather.com. “My husband traps them and then sets them free elsewhere so they don’t get into your bird feeders.”
She said she had spotted a purple squirrel on her property but no one believed her.
“I kept telling my husband I saw a purple one out in the yard. ‘Oh sure you did’ he kept telling me,” said Connie Emert. “Well, he checked the trap around noon on Sunday and sure enough, there it was.
“The squirrel’s been eating peanuts. That’s what we used in the trap.”
The Emerts do not know why the squirrel is purple.
“It’s really purple,” said Connie Emert. “People think we dyed it, but honestly, we just found it and it was purple.”
The Emerts put the colored squirrel in a large cage and kept it a few days to show their neighbors before releasing it back into the wild at another location.
Speculation on how the squirrel became purple include that it fell into a portable toilet while looking for a place to stay warm and that it accidentally got into purple paint.
Purple ink was the theory when people saw a purple squirrel called Pete in the United Kingdom in 2008. There were no theories when another purple squirrel was spotted in 1997.
Krish Pillai, a professor at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, has another theory.
“This is not good at all,” said Pillai. “That color looks very much like Tyrian purple. It is a natural organobromide compound seen in mollusks and rarely found in land animals. The squirrel (possibly) has too much bromide in its system.”
Local squirrel enthusiast Erik Stewart said, “If it has white hair on it at all, it’s probably not dyed. I’ve had multiple squirrels as pets, though, and I’ve certainly never seen a purple one. I’ve seen dark red, light red, gray and brown, but never purple. Also, I’ve tried to dye my dog before, and trust me it didn’t look like this. Though, I’ve only seen a picture, so your guess is as good as mine.”
In just a few days, the purple squirrel’s new Facebook page has gotten over 3,200 likes. It even has a Twitter account.
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