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Culling grey squirrels in favour of native red squirrels?

3K views 29 replies 19 participants last post by  TreeManEarthSteward 
#1 ·
This is one to consider: non native grey squirrels are taking over the UK as they are more aggressive than then the local red squirrels. Anglesey is an island just off the coast of north wales where environmentalists are sorting out the mistakes of the past. But, as non-native as they are, grey squirrels are taking it in the neck to rebalance things. It should be said that the local red squirrel is facing extinction in many areas because of the mistaken introduction of grey squirrels in the distant past. If the grey squirrels aren't sorted out, the red squirrels will cease to exist.

And now they want locals to phone in when they see a grey squirrel so they can be culled.

Would you shop a squirrel?

Quote:
'Shop a squirrel' line aids cull

Conservation experts want to make Anglesey a haven for red squirrels

People on Anglesey have been urged to call a phone line to report sightings of grey squirrels as part of a cull.

A conservation project on the island is looking to increase numbers of red squirrels which are often pushed out by their grey counterparts.

The greys are being humanely culled to boost red numbers which have increased from 40 to 200 over the last 10 years.

Around 8,000 greys have been killed in the last decade. Sightings should be reported to 01248 725700.

Conservationists say there are only around 50 adult greys left on the island and they are hoping those remaining will be eradicated altogether within three years.

Grey squirrels compete for food with reds, damage woodland habitats and can also carry the squirrel pox virus which is deadly to red squirrels.

"The end game is in sight," said Dr Craig Shuttleworth, woodland ecologist with Menter Môn, the Anglesey Enterprise agency which is leading the conservation project.

"If we can get rid of all the greys, then Anglesey can be a long term island refuge for the red squirrel."

Becky Moss, co-ordinator for the Friends of the Anglesey Red Squirrels said more had been released into woodland not far from Menai Bridge and there were plans to reintroduce red squirrels in other areas soon.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/6947987.stm
 
#7 ·
Quote:
I like black squirrels.
i don't think we get black squirrels in the uk. thankfully we just have to deal with the issue of the pushy grey ones and the shy red ones. i'd never seen a black squirrel till i came to canada. my first veiw of them was quite a 'whaaaa???' moment, just like the first time i smelled the delicate aroma of a skunk.

erm.. back on topic. can't we just ask them nicely to leave? couldn't we erm... shoo them away? maybe we could relocate them or send them on holiday en-masse to somewhere else (like france, perhaps!)? i spose that'd cause them stress and mess up their territory stuff though. couldn't they perhaps be selectively medicated with some kind of long term contraceptive (like depo for squirrels!) instead of culling them (perhaps via a skilled james bond style blowgun marksman wearing a squirrel or tree suit, so that he blended in)?
 
#13 ·
Personally, I think it's terrible that conservation groups (of all organisations!) are supporting a cull (or mass murder in my words) of any animal.

Is it just me that that sounds hypocritical to?

Yes, grey squirrels are a bit of a nuicence and they eat all my birdseed, but I would never support a mass murder of them. Never.

I'm sure there are other ways of getting rid of them if that's what is really necessary.
 
#14 ·
Humans tend to mess up just as much when they try to help as when they try to do anything else. I would not shop a squirrel. If gray squirrels do better than red, than that is the way it is. Maybe there would also be more reds if the humans didn't introduce and continue to breed cats, but still they breed them.
 
#15 ·
No I wouldn't. Even though I adore red squirrels and am worried about how much the species is in decline I don't want grey squirrels to be killed. It's similar to the American mink scenario. The minks, which were released into the wild from fur farms, have heavily damaged the water vole population (although there are other factors as well such as loss of habit due to flood controls etc). Even though the American mink isn't native here I don't want it to be trapped and killed.

Plus, I love the family of grey squirrels in the oak tree at the bottom of my garden to much.
 
#16 ·
Here's an idea:

Why don't we kill every grey squirrel and then let's breed loadsa red squirrils ... and then kill them off too. Of course: the solution to every problem is to kill everything.

Animal rights activists should be very cautious about buying into the idea that human interference can fix the problems that... human interference caused. The mystification of the red squirrel should be avoided given the fact that not so long back the red squirrel was regarded as a 'pest' and was driven close to the point of extinction by forms of hunting, not over agressive greys. In fact, the red-grey myth is largely coincident with the decline of the British Empire and the rise of US imperialism - 'greys' being regarded as symbols by the aristos of American expansionism, even though it was the same aristos who radically decimated the red squirrel population decades before the greys had any real presence in the UK.

Would I 'shop' a grey? No: because I'm not a hypocrite. The people who talk about 'greys' being pests are the self same sort who - if their relationship with reds had to go beyond picture postcard representation - would be gunning for reds too.

To anyone who believes in animal rights "species" has only marginal significance.
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by kazyeeqen View Post

Humans tend to mess up just as much when they try to help as when they try to do anything else.
Agree that


Quote:
Originally Posted by kazyeeqen View Post

I would not shop a squirrel. If gray squirrels do better than red, than that is the way it is.
"The Way It Is"... I feel so much better now !!... IF ONLY THAT WAS ENOUGH!!

Nature ideally takes care of itself, but thats just not possible here... if we want to save the red.

So I am sorry but thats not the attitude or outlook that works unfortunately when nature is so interrupted by man, IF YOU WANNA SAVE NATURE THAT IS, its harder for NATURE to find balance with man around I mean.... and man is far removed from nature a lot of the time too!... so he's bound to get it wrong despite 'his' intelligence.

And also humans probably aided or influenced the gray sqirrel rampancy in the first place, totally feesible I shouldn't wonder. ALTHOUGH, red squirrels maybe I grant you are the natural weaker or less well adapted specie naturally, on impression and which also seems to be fact. But Dammit I love the RED more!! (or to be PC - equally!)

Quote:
Originally Posted by kazyeeqen View Post

Maybe there would also be more reds if the humans didn't introduce and continue to breed cats, but still they breed them
well yeah, case open and closed on account of cats, as we could do with less domestics going native inbetween kitchen meals fed by owner !!!
 
#20 ·
I wouldn't. We've got a little family living in the trees by our house, they sit and stare at me when I walk past


I've seen red squirrels before and reported them, but that's so their numbers can be tracked. That's only where I used to ride horses in the woods though, I've never seen one here in town.
 
#21 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by lachry View Post

Animal rights activists should be very cautious about buying into the idea that

human interference can fix the problems that... human interference caused.
Yep you literally need Einstein to have us told about that in what he's quoted for saying here!!

>> "You can't solve a problem with the same thinking that created it." --Albert Einstein.

in other words, humans being prats.
 
#24 ·
I too, wondering about the "ship them elsewhere" idea, but I have no idea how feasible that is. I didn't realize until a few months ago (when my smart bf
told me) that the grey ones weren't native to the Isles.

I'm with Marie though, btw..the black ones are the coolest. They are all over at my parents' place.
 
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