Rare albino squirrel awes workers at Arkansas cemetery

JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT/Gray News) - What was a normal workday for employees in the Arkansas city of Jonesboro turned into something entirely different when they found an albino squirrel in a cemetery.

Terry Harris was cutting the grass at the City Cemetery in Jonesboro when he looked up into a tree and noticed something he had never seen before: an albino squirrel.

“When I actually saw it, it honestly looked like a rat,” Harris told KAIT.

Harris had no idea what the animal was as it ran around the cemetery, which led him to call his friends over to look.

“I saw the tail of it. It had red eyes, indicating that it was albino, and it was one of the most beautiful things you have ever seen in your life,” Harris said. “Out of my 38 years of living, that is one of the most awesome things I’ve ever seen in my life, man.”

Harris said they work out in cemeteries all the time and had never seen anything like this.

“We see deer over there. We see groundhogs. We see rabbits, but to see something like this... it’s astonishing, man,” Harris said.

The squirrel spent the day hanging out in a tree, while people around town took the chance to take a look.

Albinism is rare, occurring in one in every 100,000 squirrels, according to David Hillis, a biologist with the University of Texas.

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