Purple squirrel’s color driving experts nuts

A squirrel trapped by a Pennsylvania couple is quickly becoming an Inteet celebrity because of the strange color of its fur: purple.

Percy Emert and his wife, Connie, were shocked to find the purple creature in a trap they set to stop squirrels from eating their bird feed at their home in Jersey Shore, Pa.

Accuweather.com first reported the discovery.

Normally, Emert releases squirrels he catches into the woods — but this one the couple felt they had to document.


“I thought, ‘Nobody’s going to believe me,’ ” Percy Emert told the Associated Press. “Even the inside of its ears were purple.”

Like many animal celebrities, the Purple Squirrel quickly acquired its own purported Twitter account, with more than 3,000 fans and over 350 followers.

“I love you purple squirrel!” one user wrote on its Facebook page.

Meteorologists at Accuweather.com said they had different theories about how the squirrel got to be purple.

“Squirrels get into all kinds of stuff. He could have gotten into some purple ink or purple paint at some point,” senior meteorologist Dan Kottlowski said on the website.

Another suggested the squirrel may have fallen into the liquid in a port-a-potty or something similar.