What's in a name?
--by Megan Dwyer

Black squirrels. Yes, they’re real, though their precise nature is debated by amateur naturalists across the country.

“I only notice the color,” one student said. “And I think the black ones are smarter than the others. I’ve seen plenty of brown squirrels flattened on the highway; I have yet to see a black one get squashed.”

At least two species of squirrel call Nebraska home, the eastern gray squirrel and the fox squirrel. The fox squirrel is larger, up to 28 inches in length where the eastern gray only reaches 20 inches. Both vary in color from reddish brown to gray to black, making identification difficult, if not impossible.

The precise species, however, does not seem to bother most students.

More intelligent or not, the squirrels, it would seem, are here to stay.