The scientific method on a new year.

I spotted a melanistic squirrel on the Upper West Side today. Or as I like to call them, "ninja squirrels" - or sometimes, "stealth mode."

Melanistic squirrels are generally interesting in and of themselves, but it was this one's placement that really made it stand out. I've seen enough of them in the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx that they're becoming unremarkable, or at least not particularly noteworthy, and I've spotted a few down in Washington Square Park quite a ways south of where I saw the one today. This gathered data, along with the information collected today, lets me form the hypothesis that melanistic New York City squirrels aren't being selected against the typical gray ones. When the pressure for camouflage is removed, or at least heavily reduced, there's no particular pressure for or against stealth mode squirrels. So they're surviving to spread their genes rather than being eaten by hawks before they get the chance.

I rather like the idea of black squirrels becoming the norm for New York City squirrels, or at least an unremarkable and sizable percentage of them.

L'shana tova!