'Rare albino squirrel regularly visits my garden'

A rare Albino white squirrel has been spotted in East Lothian.

Jim Jermyn photographed the animal in a tree in his garden in Haddington.

The chances of an albino squirrel being born are about one in 100,000.

Conservationists at the Scottish Wildlife Trust believe it is likely to be a grey squirrel with albinism, rather than its red cousin.

Mr Jermyn said he first saw the squirrel last year, but did not think it would make it until this Christmas due to battling for territory with local greys.

But despite those challenges, Mr Jermyn, 71, now gets to see it every day.

"It is wonderful seeing it in my own garden," he said.

"When I first saw it last year, I thought there wasn't a hope in hell that it would make it, but now I think it might be becoming more tame.

"I have only been able to sneak round the corner of my house and take a picture of it from afar. It looks really cute tucked in between the branches."

He added: "I would really like to get a picture of it up close. Hopefully with it getting more and more tame, it will be less nervous."

Albinism is a congenital condition caused by an absence of melanin, which gives colour to the skin and hair.

Squirrels, like the one in Haddington, can be identified as albino if they have a white coat with pink eyes.

Natural red squirrels with albinism or leucism, a condition which causes a partial loss of pigmentation, are more rare.

A spokesperson for conservation group Saving Scotland's Red Squirrels, an offshoot of Scottish Wildlife Trust, said East Lothian had a higher than average population of white squirrels, but did not have exact figures.

However they added the animals were still an invasive species which pose a threat to the native red variety.

"We receive a fair few sightings of albino grey squirrels from the East Lothian area throughout the year," they said.

"It may be that there is a prevalence of these genes in the population in this part of Scotland, although we cannot give any definite figures for numbers of squirrels experiencing the condition at this time."

They added: "It should be said that these albino grey squirrels, whilst interesting to see, are an invasive non-native species which pose a great threat to Scotland's native red squirrels, outcompeting them for food and habitat."