It appears that Las Vegas and Texas City have something in common.

Galveston County Daily News

White squirrels, like the ones that have shown up in Texas City, have several places claiming to be the White Squirrel Capital of America.

Peter Riger of the Houston Zoo said the white squirrels reported and photographed near Fourth Street and Eighth Avenue North in Texas City bear some relationship with the famous white tigers of Vegas’ fame.

If that’s not enough, the new rodent residents may have originated in Transylvania.

But there’s nothing to be concerned about. In fact, they may actually be good for business.

Before you begin to worry about vampire squirrels, it should be added Transylvania lies in North Carolina and is not the 19^th century European province portrayed by “Dracula” author Bram Stoker.

First, the Vegas connection as explained by Riger, conservation program manager at the zoo:

“These squirrels carry a gene that will produce more of the lighter colored ones than you’d normally see,” he said. “A bottlenecked population like this doesn’t move around much, so a recessive pigmentation can breed true. It’s typical of the way people have (deliberately) bred white tigers.”

The cream-coated squirrels are no more aggressive than the ordinary fox and gray squirrels that have always lived here. But Riger cautions that because this is breeding season for squirrels of all colors, a great deal of barking and other defensive behavior may be observed.

Each mother squirrel protects her nest of two to four babies with such displays. Riger noted that even the cutest squirrel can unexpectedly bite, leading to potential injury and infection.

“I’m not going to say that they are completely safe, because someone could be bitten if they try to feed them,” he said.

These rodents may have hitchhiked to Galveston County or be part of a spontaneous natural mutation that results in less pigment being produced by each hair follicle.

The variation is different from those that produce albino animals.

Riger also noted that the white squirrels mate freely with others of their species without regard to pigmentation — or lack thereof.

Beyond the biology, other cities have found white squirrels to be good for tourism. The bottom line seems to be that the two-toned, cream-colored rodents have been good business wherever they have appeared.

The Internet lists several other places that have at one time or another vied for the title of White Squirrel Capital of America in an apparent effort to lure the ecotourist. Transylvania’s claim appears to be the oldest.

“For many years there were only three communities in the country that had white squirrels,” said Beth Cardin, president of the Brevard-Transylvania Chamber of Commerce in North Carolina. “They were quite a novelty.

“We have a White Squirrel Festival each year. People in Texas City need to turn this into a positive for tourism like we did with our festival, which Jay Leno mentioned on TV.”

So prized are the white squirrels, the municipality passed an ordinance in 1986 protecting the “Brevard white squirrel” and making it illegal to “hunt, kill, trap, or otherwise take protected squirrels.”

The squirrels have been residents of the Transylvania area for about half a century, said Cardin.

She also said that Transylvanians brake for the squirrels, which she referred to as a “tourism product.”

Brevard even boasts a local store named The White Squirrel Shoppe.

If the mutation did not arise spontaneously here, then this Carolina squirrel haven is the most likely source for the Texas version.

The first white gene carrier could have arrived as a hitchhiker, or even, Cardin suggested, as a “kidnap victim” transported across state lines.

However they arose, the Texas City attraction is probably here to stay.