Red squirrels are returning to areas of Britain again after decades of absence, according to new research.
Louise Gray
Apr 11, 2009
SOURCE: Telegraph
The Red Squirrel Survival Trust (RSST), launched by the Prince of Wales last week, claim reds are being seen again in Cumbria, Northumberland and parts of Wales after an absence of twenty years or more.
The charity claim the new evidence strengthens the case for trapping and killing invasive greys in order to let the native reds recolonise. It is feared reds could be extinct within ten years because of competition from the greys, which not only eat the same food but spread a fatal pox to the red population.
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However, animal rights activists insist red and grey squirrels can live side by side by managing habitat and developing a vaccine against the pox.
The red squirrel "fight back" has been most successful in Cumbria where the animals have been seen in Garsdale and Argill Woods after an absence of up to a decade following a culling of the grey population.
In Scotland reds have returned to Mugdrum in Tayside after 15 years following the removal of 117 grey squirrels and at Wormit in Fife the native species moved in again from the surrounding area after 20 years.
Dr Craig Shuttleworth, Project Director of Friends of the Anglesey Red Squirrels and RSST adviser, said the new evidence showed how successful grey squirrel culls can be.
He said: "Ten years ago there were fewer than 40 red squirrels on the island of Anglesey, and their prospects were bleak. However, through a strong local partnership, grey squirrels have almost completely been removed from the island, and the red squirrel population has increased to 300. Significantly they have spread from the conifer trees to the broadleaf areas �" showing that reds are happy in a whole variety of habitats providing they are untroubled by greys. Anglesey has turned the grey tide."
The charity now want to make Cumbria the first county in England to become a "grey squirrel control zone" in an effort to retain the red population. Eventually they hope to make Northumberland a "red squirrel reserve" as well as protecting the whole of Scotland from greys spreading further north.
But campaign group Advocates for Animals, said "culling is killing" and insisted the greys can coexist with reds through appropriate habitat management and developing a squirrel pox vaccine.
