Greys Vs Reds - Come on you Martens!

[drinksloe]

Meant to add i think on both angelsy and Isle of wight are now considered grey free. Lot of hard work but it can be done. Some areas of cumbria and NE are getting their act together and reds are coming back

 

I know an estate near me where 5 years ago only had a few reds left and catching around 100 greys, used some grant money to employ a trapper and now have lots of reds, reckoned to be well over 100 now and climbing rapidly.

They're still catching a lot of greys but it is moves moving in and caught fairly quickly.

Also the reds in this area do seem to becoming a bit more resilent to squirrel pox now which the english greys carry not the scottish (yet) But greys are not caught in small numbers all throu the district now, where 10 years ago would be almost none

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

Won't Pine Martens munch on reds just as much as greys?!

[njmusk]

Won't Pine Martens munch on reds just as much as greys?!

 

Not according to a couple of delegates from some PM release group at a meeting held by FCS. Apparently PMs and reds having been living together so long, PMs are more likely to predate greys as they spend more time on the ground than reds. I don't know how they worked that one out.

 

There has been a couple of squirrel pox in greys reported up here, but now there is now no funding for blood testing of greys in Scotland.

[GrahamW]

Red Squirrels and Pine Martens are both native to the UK so have evolved to live alongside each other over thousands of years. One of the red's main defence mechanisms is that they are smaller and lighter than Pine Martens so they can reach right out to the ends of branches which would not support the weight of PMs. This is also the grey's Achilles heel, so to speak - they are much bigger and heavier than the reds, so there is nowhere for them to hide.

[Mick Dempsey]

I like grey squirrels, I also like pine martens, there was one living under my bath when we moved in here, fortunately he moved out when we moved in, I see them quite often here.

Greys are in the UK to stay.

[Logged On]

Grey's are getting FATTER too!

[Mick Dempsey]

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/general-chat/51029-praise-grey-squirrels.html

It's a suprisingly popular topic.

[drinksloe]

Not a lot of scientific evidence in praise of them on that thread thou.

 

U talk about there acrobatics etc, the reds are even more nimble and acrobatic when u watch them, just most folk have forgot as been so long sonce seen a red.

 

Greys don't have to be here to stay in there was a genuine motivation to cull them region/natioon wide.

It would not be as hard as u think if the will was there, they wiped out the coypu years ago 80's?, have the Uists free of mink, which is the most ideal mink habitat u could have, and a nightmare for access for humans. if possible to do that there u can do it anywhere. Plenty of rivers/catchment areas now are mink free trying to bring back the water vole, and mink are pretty common. Even on the islands getting a few clear of hedgehogs now

 

Go down the old fashioned route of a bounty on there tail, used to be bounty's on all sorts of things, even 2-5 quid a tail would definately make it worth while for many to set a few traps on a daily dog walk, or for keepers/farmers feeding birds/stock. and cheaper than some of the madcap/useless schemes that government will dream up.

 

In the old days u had parish rabbit catchers and the ministry (MAFF) had and exercised there right to enter folks land to control rabbits/weeds if they were not doing it well enough. That right will still exist wether it would ever be used to enter some bunny huggers ground to kill squirells is something else thou

 

Compared to many other countries we're pretty rubish at looking out for our native flora and fuana. Wether its boisecurity (diseases) or letting other plants become established (JKW or him balsalm etc) even in scotish mainland hardly a 100% pure bred red der left, as sika so widespread which hybridise with them.

Both NZ and OZ routinely air drop poisoned baits to kill non natives, while that would never work here i wish some folk would grow a pair and make some harsh choices to protect wot's left

Edited January 8, 2016 by drinksloe

[Mick Dempsey]

Not a lot of scientific evidence in praise of them on that thread thou.

 

U talk about there acrobatics etc, the reds are even more nimble and acrobatic when u watch them, just most folk have forgot as been so long sonce seen a red.

 

Greys don't have to be here to stay in there was a genuine motivation to cull them region/natioon wide.

 

Go down the old fashioned route of a bounty on there tail, used to be bounty's on all sorts of things, even 2-5 quid a tail would definately make it worth while for many to set a few traps on a daily dog walk, or for keepers/farmers feeding birds/stock. and cheaper than some of the madcap/useless schemes that government will dream up.

 

In the old days u had parish rabbit catchers and the ministry (MAFF) had and exercised there right to enter folks land to control rabbits/weeds if they were not doing it well enough. That right will still exist wether it would ever be used to enter some bunny huggers ground to kill squirells is something else thou

 

Compared to many other countries we're pretty rubish at looking out for our native flora and fuana. Wether its boisecurity (diseases) or letting other plants become established (JKW or him balsalm etc) even in scotish mainland hardly a 100% pure bred red der left, as sika so widespread which hybridise with them.

Both NZ and OZ routinely air drop poisoned baits to kill non natives, while that would never work here i wish some folk would grow a pair and make some harsh choices to protect wot's left

 

So rabbits have been eradicated then?

In defence of British "bio security" We managed to eradicate coypu which the French can't do. Because they're easier to catch. We'd like to eradicate the brown rat but.....

In other words, it can't be done, it won't be done, forget about it

Edited January 8, 2016 by Mick Dempsey

[drinksloe]

Grey squirrels are hardly hard to catch infact 1 of the easist animals to trap.

 

My poiint about the rabbit catchers was that was the days pre mixi and definately pre VHD, and whole regions worked together to keep rabbits at a sustainable level. These boys were taking phenominal nuumbers of rabbits every day.

It would be possibly but to many bunny huggers wouldnae allow it, and would get upset by it.