When the first grey squirrels were brought to Britain from America in 1876 to provide a tourist attraction for Cheshire’s parks and country houses, no one could have envisaged the destruction they would cause.
The new arrival was much larger (average weight 550 gms.), stronger and more adaptable than our native red squirrel (average weight 300 gms.) and in just a matter of years was starting to take over its habitat.
But this wasn’t achieved by direct confrontation with the red squirrel but through a virus, parapox, which it brought to Britain. While the disease didn’t harm the carrier, parapox in red squirrels caused skin ulcers, lesions and scabs with swelling and discharge around the eyes, mouth and feet. The animals became unable to move and get food and died within just 15 days of coming into contact with the virus.
Over a century of relentess expansion now sees the grey squirrel numbers at 2 million while the red squirrel is down to just 30,000, surviving only in parts of Scotland, Cumbria, Northumberland and the Isle of Wight. Most experts give the red only another 10 years before it is completely wiped out from the UK.
Pushing the red squirrel towards extinction in the UK is not the only reason why this tree rat from the United States needs to be eclipsed from Britain.
Grey squirrels also attacks Britain’s bird population by destroying nests and eating the eggs and the young chicks.
Grey squirrels are extremely destructive in woodlands, stripping bark from the main stem and branches of trees. This impact of grey squirrels is a threat to future woodland conservation, biodiversity and sustainability.
Grey squirrels are harming britain’s timber industry because they target trees such as, beech, oak, and pine. Their bark stripping damage reduces timber quality through staining (due to fungal infection) and structural defects and ultimately reduces timber value and yield. Weakened stems may break and trees that are ring-barked will die from that point up.
The public must be educated as to the threat to our birds, trees and red squirrel posed by this American tree rat so that they back the call for a nationwide cull to rid Britain of this vermin.
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They are also surviving (just) on the coast at Formby, Merseyside.
Lets hope the greys go the same way as the Coypu which were once a major pest in our rivers & streams. Almost as big as a beaver, the Coypu spread across the country during the 1950s and it took a concerted effort to eradicate it completely. Back then there were no animal rights activists and the vicious semi-carnivore has never returned.
There’s a squirrel at the end of my garden who plays around the stream: we wont see reds around here again. shame.
Well, I’m sure the residents of Cheshire found the greys very cute and entertaining when a few were introduced. But later, as their population increased and same residents found that these creatures were eating their prized bulbs, and dug nut trees into their pristine flower beds, they probably started to get annoyed. When the indigenous birds and pretty reds were seen less and less, then it was time to worry.
At least there are measures to help preserve the reds, which is more than can be said for certain other indigenes.
The mink was another introduction, an economic one. Some escaped into the wild and a number were deliberately freed by misguided animal righta activists. They are doing untold damage to our wildlife. Concerned organisations are trying to solve the problem though, but it’s an uphill job.
On visiting the then newly planted National Forest, I asked one of the people there why they were planting some foreign trees rather than our native species, she replied “well, we get them cheaper”.
In Norfolk some years ago, a Conservation body were clearing an area of certain trees in order to encourage a bird from an out area (tourist attraction). My brother, a naturalist, pointed out that the trees they were removing were the natural habitat for a rare native moth and it’s larvae. They, the experts, hadn’t realised that, that by introducing a new species, they were destroying a native one!