Over the last decade I've increasingly seen more and more cinnamon coloured grey squirrels. Sometimes it is just the tail that is a bright cinnamon, sometimes the colour is faint, other times it is a rich deep colour, sometimes, as here, it is a brownish-cinnamon. This is actually the black phase of the eastern grey squirrel, and it is most frequently the black phase ones that have the cinnamon colouration. Speculation as to why more and more cinnamon coloured animals are appearing, centres on inbreeding. There have always been colour variations in grey squirrels, but some biologists believe that with increasing populations and much inbreeding, the once-rare characteristics such as the cinnamon colouration, have become more common.