First blue lobsters, now purple squirrels? Yes, yes indeed.

Discovered in the wild by Jersey Shore residents Percy and Connie Elmert, it was looked after for a couple days in their home before being released back into the wild.

"We have bird feeders out in our yard, and the squirrels are constantly into them," Mrs Emert told accuweather.com. "My husband traps them and then sets them free elsewhere so they don't get into your bird feeders."

But during its short period of captivity, the world's purplest squirrel has made a pretty big name of itself with its own Twitter account and Facebook fan club cropping up in a matter of days.

His tweets go along the lines of "Yes... it's true. @Kristi Myers: Purple Squirrel, is it true that your Mom was a red squirrel and your dad was blue?" and his Facebook posts, well, follow the same lines.

Experts are worried about the little furry fellow's health, however, as the colour seems to indicate that it has "too much bromide in its system - possibly from all the bromide laced frack water" according to one scientist who commented on accuweather.com's post.

Surprisingly, this isn't the first time a squirrel of this particular hue has cropped up in the news - back in December 2008, The Daily Telegraph reported a similarly-coloured rodent making its presence felt in Stubbington, Hampshire.

Whatever the reason behind the little munchkin's current colour, we hope he's doing well and isn't standing out too much in the snow. Hell, what are we saying, of course he is. That's how it goes when you're a purple squirrel...