Extinction..

Day 215 #365DaysWild

Eric is now in his eighties. Good bloke.

Formerly involved in the gamekeeping business.

We’re both Nottinghamshire folks and one day our conversation turned to red squirrel - our native squirrels.

A red squirrel with squirrel pox.

Nottinghamshire’s DH Lawrence’s 1915 ‘Sons & Lovers’ describes squirrels. Red squirrels. Once widespread in our county.

Eric remembers seeing one of the last red squirrels in our county in Sherwood Forest in the 1960’s.

They are now extinct for us, killed by a pox that they have no defence against that is carried by introduced North American grey squirrels.

News today from Terry Abraham (his photo) via X (formerly twitter) that the healthy population of red squirrels at Rutter Falls near Appleby has been wiped out by the pox.

And this is how extinctions happen. Formerly abundant species disappear without active support.

They were introduced into the UK in 1865. Since introduction they have flourished. There are an estimated 2.7 million grey squirrels in the UK and the population is continuing to grow.

They predate birds nests. Our hawfinches at nest  are easy prey. Grey squirrels have an adverse impact on many native woodland birds, reducing fledging rates by an average of 15%. They strip trees of nuts and fruits. When they peel bark from branches they cause around £14 million of damage per year. 66% of beech, 30% of oak and sweet chestnut stands had been damaged by grey squirrels. They occupy bird nest boxes. 

And they’re resourceful too. On Anglesey where they have eradicated greys, the red squirrels flourish. But grey squirrels have been seen swimming from the mainland across the Menai Straits to the promised land on the other side.

But what’s to do?

King Charles suggested controlling the booming grey squirrel population by lacing Nutella with a contraceptive. We like our royals bonkers. Which is fortunate really.

The natural remedy is pine martens. Where they co-habit with grey squirrels pine martens it is said they can reduce the population of greys significantly.

We are overrun by grey squirrels. When a gamekeeper friend on the adjacent farm asked to come over and control our grey population we agreed.

And while he was with us we saw fewer squirrels.

They’re back up to numbers now. Something must be done!