TheMorningStar
February 11th, 2012, 04:49 PM
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee314/fishincage/DD/120210-science-squirrel-125pphotoblog500.jpg
"It's not typical, but it's not impossible," said Harold Cole, a warden with the Pennsylvania Game Commission who investigated the case.
Percy Emert, a resident of the town in central Pennsylvania, said he and his wife caught the squirrel on Sunday in a trap, using peanuts as bait.
"At first I thought somebody around here was playing tricks," he said. The family took pictures of the animal in its cage and posted them on Facebook. Then, on Tuesday, they set the squirrel free.
The pigment really hit the fan once the online pictures were featured on AccuWeather's website (http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/purple-squirrel-found-in-penns/61308). Now the Purple Squirrel has its own Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ThePurpleSquirrel) with more than 3,800 fans. It didn't hurt that a "purple squirrel" also happens to be engineering slang (http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=312980) for an impossibly ideal job candidate (http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/10/10376734-purple-squirrel-goes-free-leaving-mystery-behind#).
The only problem is that beyond the Emerts and their friends, no one actually saw the squirrel or was able to study it. The family did hang onto some of the fur that was left behind in the cage, along with some tail trimmings — and they gave those samples to Cole when he was called to the scene.
Cole said the hairs could be passed along to a lab for an analysis, but the game commission itself won't be pursuing the case any further. As purple as it is, the squirrel doesn't appear to pose a hazard or be suffering from disease.
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/10/10376734-purple-squirrel-goes-free-leaving-mystery-behind
"It's not typical, but it's not impossible," said Harold Cole, a warden with the Pennsylvania Game Commission who investigated the case.
Percy Emert, a resident of the town in central Pennsylvania, said he and his wife caught the squirrel on Sunday in a trap, using peanuts as bait.
"At first I thought somebody around here was playing tricks," he said. The family took pictures of the animal in its cage and posted them on Facebook. Then, on Tuesday, they set the squirrel free.
The pigment really hit the fan once the online pictures were featured on AccuWeather's website (http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/purple-squirrel-found-in-penns/61308). Now the Purple Squirrel has its own Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ThePurpleSquirrel) with more than 3,800 fans. It didn't hurt that a "purple squirrel" also happens to be engineering slang (http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=312980) for an impossibly ideal job candidate (http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/10/10376734-purple-squirrel-goes-free-leaving-mystery-behind#).
The only problem is that beyond the Emerts and their friends, no one actually saw the squirrel or was able to study it. The family did hang onto some of the fur that was left behind in the cage, along with some tail trimmings — and they gave those samples to Cole when he was called to the scene.
Cole said the hairs could be passed along to a lab for an analysis, but the game commission itself won't be pursuing the case any further. As purple as it is, the squirrel doesn't appear to pose a hazard or be suffering from disease.
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/10/10376734-purple-squirrel-goes-free-leaving-mystery-behind