Couple Catches Purple Squirrel in Pennsylvania
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Image Credit: Courtesy Michelle Emert Carithers and Connie Emert
Percy and Connie Emert from Jersey Shore, Pa., have been battling the squirrels that damage their bird feeders for some time, but until Sunday they’d never seen a rodent like this — a purple squirrel.
Connie Emert told ABC News that she’d seen the oddly colored squirrel for about a week prior to capturing it, but her husband didn’t believe her.
“He figured it was just an off-color squirrel,” she said. “But when we trapped it on Sunday he was like, ‘My God, you were right. It was really purple.’”
Percy Emert traps the squirrels that damage the feeders and sets them free far away from the yard.
Connie Emert estimated he has trapped at least 50 squirrels this winter.
The couple released the squirrel on Wednesday after showing it to family, friends and neighbors.
The Emerts said they have no idea how the squirrel acquired its unique coloring.
“We’ve never seen one before and no one else ever did either,” Connie Emert said. “No one else can explain it. No one has any idea what happened to him.”
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Why would you release that Squirrel. I am sure that someone would like to research how that happened
Posted by: Cory | February 10, 2012, 11:18 am 11:18 am
Some squirrely Raven’s fan woulda payed you big bucks for it! lol
Posted by: colonel_klink | February 10, 2012, 12:10 pm 12:10 pm
This is so full of fail. Mammals come in natural colors and purple’s hardly a natural color. It’s not a friggin insect, amphibian, or reptile. Either the couple painted this squirrel or they just sent in a Photoshopped picture to ABC, apparently full of dunderheads with no common sense. I call this Photoshopped and it has been historically proven that pictures can lie.
The only time you’ll see a naturally-occurring purple squirrel is in fiction.
Posted by: Jana | February 10, 2012, 1:34 pm 1:34 pm
Sorry Jana,but you’re wrong.
Posted by: marcus | February 10, 2012, 7:46 pm 7:46 pm
You are wrong Jana. The squirrel photo was not photo shopped, I assure you. Cory, it was released because it was a wild animal and did not enjoy being in a cage.
Posted by: Michelle | February 11, 2012, 12:22 am 12:22 am
Releasing a purple squirrel — whether dyed or not — away from the area where it was caught is a bad idea. Jana was right that purple is hardly a natural color for a squirrel. Their natural colors allow them to have at least some sort of protection from predators. By now, the poor, purple squirrel probably has been a good dinner to a fox or a hawk. The dunderheads were the people who, instead of taking responsibility for the animal they captured, by bringing it to a local veterinarian or a school of veterinary medicine at a local college or university where it would be examined and kept safe, just let it go far from their bird feeder (which shows what their priorities were). I don’t think the image was Photoshopped, because if you look at the tail, you can see strands of natural, dark brown hair. I think some local college fraternity brothers caught it, dyed it, and released it, which is the type of ignorant thing young frat brothers would do.
Posted by: Shayla | February 17, 2012, 5:39 pm 5:39 pm