Grey squirrel management

[Stere]

 

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Shooting is good sport. Recently I’ve had a variant of greys, locally, smaller, a gingery brown with tufts on ears. Must be some mutation. Anyway, they still taste ok

 

Reds sometimes are black in north wales 😄

 

 

Seen some in north wales nearly this black apprently they  imported  a batch from czech repulbic to repopulate and the the czech ones were dark brown /black

 

 

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they also won't be helping the Scottish wildcat either if there even is any left.

 

Wildcats supposedly eat polecats.

 

EDIT: Meant to  write Wildcats supposedly eat pine martens😏

Edited April 21, 2021 by Stere

[Will C]

We get the odd very dark red here, they look deep red or black depending on the light conditions 

[drinksloe]

52 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

They didn't so much ban it but more the producers didn't re license it because sales were so low. Also it was being badly misused for squirrel. The approved method was to place the hoppers at greater than 50?? metre spacings, pre bait with maize and then fill the hoppers with warfarin covered wheat , refilling frequently and stopping by end June. This was to ensure squirrels were taking the bait and then giving a good chance they would eat their body weight over a short period to get an outright kill. What was happening was people were leaving hoppers out over long, not re filling them and having them too close together. This latter was having a seriously bad effect on other small rodents that normally only forage over smaller distances, hence knocking out meta populations rather than the odd individual.

 

The idea was to control excess males at the danger period for bark stripping.

Kania trap is the spring trap fixed on a tree, I didn't know the gas operated thing was cleared for squirrel in UK. I used Fenn Mk 4 in tunnels but over 45 years ago now.

It's taken all that time for the contraceptive to be approved, if it is the same one being researched all those years ago  it worked quite differently from human contraceptives as it made the females immune system  attack the sperm, normally sperm have the means to suppress an immune response.

 

I've only seen reds in the Lake district, never in Scotland but I haven't been back there for 10 years now. In the twenties my mother fed reds on the kitchen table in Bookham.

 

Aye u get the kania and ur new DoC trap althou it's more designed for stoats, it just really modified fenns.

 

I think it's called the natura 2000 or something I think they could even be licensed now for UK.

 

Lucky where I come from still are/was plenty of reds, never really seen or trapped my 1st grey locally till 4yrs ago.

So not familiar with using poison for Grey's or even spring traps for them, all cage traps as high chance off catching reds.

 

 

[drinksloe]

33 minutes ago, Stere said:

 

 

Reds sometimes are black in north wales 😄

 

 

Seen some in north wales nearly this black apprently they  imported  a batch from czech repulbic to repopulate and the the czech ones were dark brown /black

 

 

 

Wildcats supposedly eat polecats.

 

Do u not get a version of black grey squirrels too?

I thought there was an English big house with a lot of the ' black' Grey's.

Amazing the colour variation u get with reds esp in winter coats

 

Aye an adult wildcat would try to catch kill a PM but equally if an adult PM found a litter off wildcat kittens it wouldn't struggle to kill them.

When u think the Scottish wildcat is the rarest cat species on planet not something it can really afford from such a common predator.

Some wildcat estimates are below 40 individuals althou some think already too late for genetically pure wildcats.

[Mick Dempsey]

1 minute ago, drinksloe said:

 

Do u not get a version of black grey squirrels too?

I thought there was an English big house with a lot of the ' black' Grey's.

Amazing the colour variation u get with reds esp in winter coats

 

Aye an adult wildcat would try to catch kill a PM but equally if an adult PM found a litter off wildcat kittens it wouldn't struggle to kill them.

When u think the Scottish wildcat is the rarest cat species on planet not something it can really afford from such a common predator.

Some wildcat estimates are below 40 individuals althou some think already too late for genetically pure wildcats.

Are you confusing Pine Martens and polecats?

[Gav73]

Never seen a red and used to get quite a few greys round here - until we got two kittens that were born to a feral mother, these two hunt, kill and eat everything from mice to squirrels and rabbits!

Probably helps that we know we have what appears to be a wildcat that frequents the woods and the local bus yard next to us

[drinksloe]

2 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Are you confusing Pine Martens and polecats?

???

 

No. Why?

[sime42]

This is the gas powered automatic trap. Looks good in theory. Shame its so bloody expensive!

A new weapon against the greys

WWW.FORESTRYJOURNAL.CO.UK

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The alien North American grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is a huge challenge for UK foresters, especially those wanting to grow hardwoods for…

[Mick Dempsey]

7 hours ago, drinksloe said:

???

 

No. Why?

Stère referred to wild cats eating polecats, you were referring to wild cats eating PM.

[Tippin Alaybye]

This is the gas powered automatic trap. Looks good in theory. Shame its so bloody expensive!

A new weapon against the greys

WWW.FORESTRYJOURNAL.CO.UK

---

The alien North American grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is a huge challenge for UK foresters, especially those wanting to grow hardwoods for…

I got one. Bloody rubbish. Not one success