In praise of Grey Squirrels

[woodyguy]

Not that I wish to defend Grey squirrels but a couple of points.

 

Before grabbing the bungee and catapulting them into oblivion remember the man who was fined £1500 after being prosecuted by the RSPCA for drowning a squirrel he caught in a trap.

 

Secondly, the Red squirrels that we all love are actually introductions as well. Like foxes they have nearly died out several times and had multiple introductions from the European continental mainland over the past 200 years. That's why reds in different part of these isles are different colours. Similarly why modern foxes are bigger than in older times.

 

So the blur between native and introduced is blurred even further.

[Dean Lofthouse]

Any species can become a pest.

 

Magpies are also heavily controlled

[Paper Rustler]

Somebody once told me that the only difference between rats and squirrels is that squirrels have a better PR team! Quit right if you think about it.

[woodland dweller]

keep my chickens mixed corn in a metal dustbin and during the summer a squirrel managed to lift the lid and get in (its quite a tight fit). Shot that one and lo and behold next day it happened again, shot that one, this went on for several weeks in the end i had shot 8 that had got into that bin by lifting the lid, i now have to keep a block on the lid but when i forget about it the lid is often left off. How can that many squirrels learn to lift the lid off ? Never happened before and why did they leave the bins with the layers pellets and wild bird seed in that have lids that will come off easier.

[Le Sanglier]

Somebody once told me that the only difference between rats and squirrels is that squirrels have a better PR team! Quit right if you think about it.

 

Quite wrong actually, Squirrels don't spread diseases harmful to humans or damage property (to the same extent, yes i know Dean!) or spoil our food stores.

[Dean Lofthouse]

In an ideal world every species could learn to limit their numbers and we could all live in harmony, but we as humans are supposedly the most intelligent beings and we cant limit our numbers, we know we are damaging the planet yet we still carry on regardless. We all use energy needlessly, we over eat, pump co2 into the atmosphere, kill each other rob each other blah blah blah

If humans can't stop damaging the planet and over breeding we can't expect less intelligent beings to do the same

[Woodworks]

In an ideal world every species could learn to limit their numbers and we could all live in harmony, but we as humans are supposedly the most intelligent beings and we cant limit our numbers, we know we are damaging the planet yet we still carry on regardless. We all use energy needlessly, we over eat, pump co2 into the atmosphere, kill each other rob each other blah blah blah

If humans can't stop damaging the planet and over breeding we can't expect less intelligent beings to do the same

 

[aquatoo]

Hi Stumpgrinder

 

We have a house in the Landes and quite often see red squirrels in the garden, although they aren't as bold as the greys that we get here in the UK.

 

I have a walnut tree at home here and each year the grey squirrels manage to strip it of all the nuts in a day. I don't believe the little blighters could manage the whole tree - about 200 nuts - singly so I reckon they must team up. Every time I think I'll pick those at the weekend they all go missing a couple of days before. I definitely don't like grey squirrels.

[Brick100]

 

 

Killer squirrel.

[HCR]

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/fr/INFD-8C8BHC

 

It is thought that red squirrels made their way to the British Isles from mainland Europe by the end of the last ice age, approximately 10 000 years ago. Records indicate a large population as far back as the 15th and 16th Centuries, but evidence shows that before grey squirrel introductions, there were historical population fluxes of reds. By the 18th century populations were declining principally because of loss of woodland. Red squirrels were reported as extinct in some parts of Scotland following large-scale deforestation, but the widespread planting of conifers and introductions of red squirrels from England, and possibly Scandinavia in the late 18th and early 19th centuries resulted in increasing populations between 1890 and 1910.

 

In 1903, the Highland Squirrel Club was established to control red squirrels, which were causing severe bark-stripping damage to trees, and over 82,000 animals were killed in the 20 years up to 1933. Populations throughout the British Isles declined again between 1910 and 1930 becoming scarce in many places in the 1920s (Gurnell, 1991). A similar pattern of population change occurred in Northern Ireland.

 

 

Genetic testing shows that a Welsh enclave of reds has a unique mitochondrial haplotype, meaning that they are probably the only remnants of the original British population.