Black Squirrel Mug

Princeton has many urban legends. Including several debunked myths surrounding the origins of our ubiquitous black squirrels. Myth 1 : As the story goes, years ago, deep in the bowels of one of Princeton's biology buildings, an inhumane and unnatural science experiment produced a breed of black squirrels. Some of the squirrels either escaped or were liberated by a zealous animal-rights group, and now these new uber-squirrels are slowly taking over the campus. Myth 2: Moses Taylor Pyne, Princeton University alumnus, class of 1877, first brought black squirrels and orange squirrels to Princeton some time after graduation. Over the years, the orange squirrels died off, while the black squirrels proliferated and remain to this day. Descendents of those first black squirrels donated by Moses Pyne. While both stories are completely false, the town has, nonetheless, adopted the black squirrel as the unofficial Princeton mascot. These stories are cheerfully repeated because the myths seem more interesting than the truth...black squirrels are perfectly natural. Black and gray squirrels are merely different color morphs of the same species, the eastern gray squirrel. Celebrate our unique, furry-tailed friends and propagate the Princeton urban legends with panache with the black squirrel mug...the town's unofficial mascot!