Today I saw an albino Squirrel in Friston Forest. It had only one eye.
Rare albino squirrel spotted in Sussex | ITV News Meridian Sunday 24 January 2021, 2:55pm
A rare albino squirrel has been spotted foraging for food in Sussex.
The Forestry Commission said the condition is caused by a rare gene inherited from the parents, and in 2010 only one in 100,000 squirrels were born albino.
The gene is not dominant, meaning an albino squirrel can have grey siblings.
But their white fur makes them more vulnerable to attack from predators as they have no natural camouflage.
Albino animals lack melanin and are white with no markings and with unpigmented pink eyes.
A website created for the public to record sightings of a white squirrel show more than 200 have been spotted in places including Sussex, Kent, Surrey and London.
Claire Brimacombe, who created the website White Squirrels of Sussex, said more than 30 sightings were submitted in the past two weeks.
There are significantly more albino squirrels in the UK than suggested.
I now have over 200 separate sightings recorded throughout the UK.
Online media searches throughout the UK claim that they are very rare, with statements such as 'wildlife experts estimate that there are just 50 in the UK' or 'the odds of seeing an albino squirrel is 1 in 100,000'.
In fact, using the wildlife experts ratio of 1:100,000 for a mammal giving birth to an albino, and the 2.4 million estimate of grey squirrels living in the UK , this would actually equate to just 24 albino squirrels in the UK.