Driving through our neighborhood yesterday, I came across a white-tailed gray squirrel. In my 70+ years of exploring nature, this was a first.
Though I have encountered albino squirrels in the past, I had not seen this particular color variation, which is clearly a recessive trait. In other words, both of its parents carry the recessive gene which is not expressed when paired with a dominant gene. Furthermore, such traits are usually polygenic (reflecting the expression of multiple gene pairs).
Beyond the genetics, this sighting was just my latest exposure to nature's fabulous diversity. On the other hand, the expression of recessive traits, many of which are deleterious, increase when populations are isolated, a process that humans facilitate as we relentlessly destroy natural habitat.
