For generations, it has been the policy of the UK Government to save the red squirrel from extinction at the hands of the grey squirrel. Those in power intended to protect the population of the red variety by controlling the grey squirrels ‘using legalised means’ such as beatings and bullets.
However, the tide may be turning against the policy of the UK Government and the groups of people appear to have gone to war over whether a cull is justified. Campaign groups such as Animal Aid have asked people to think again about the approach taken by the UK Government, claiming that this treatment of the grey squirrel may be unjustified as in the group’s opinion their only crime is ‘not being native’ to the United Kingdom. They also argue that grey squirrels should not be harmed solely because they have moved into a new area and have successfully ‘thrived’ in the environment. In this article, we examine the views of both sides in this heated debate.
Why do grey squirrels get such a bad press?
It is difficult to understand this dispute without first examining the history of the dispute between the two tribes. As highlighted by the House of Lords Library in its May publication entitled ‘Woodland cover and grey squirrels’, the ‘population of the red squirrel has been reducing since the 1940s’. It also shone a spotlight on some of the problems caused by grey squirrels when the animals are trying to find sources of food in the form of ‘sap’. When grey squirrels are seeking out food they ‘strip the bark from trees and this inflicts ‘harm on natural habitats’
However, Marc Baldwin from Wildlife Online and reportedly living in the New Forest in Hampshire disputes the demonising of grey squirrels by observing that ‘both grey and red squirrels strip bark’. He believes that grey squirrels are more negatively looked upon as their ‘densities are greater than their red counterparts’. UK government has a policy of ‘supporting woodlands and keeping the ‘population of grey squirrels’ at a manageable level. The UK Parliament Lords library observed that grey squirrels are the most common type of squirrel in England. However there are places where the grey squirrel is not the most common species locally, such as the Isle of Wight, all of Scotland, Anglesey in Wales, and in smaller areas of England such as Winstanley Hall and the Red Squirrel Reserve in Formby.
Has the cull of grey squirrels made any difference?
Despite the efforts made by the powers that be to save the red squirrel to the detriment of their grey counterparts over the last eight decades it seems that the focus on protecting the red squirrel has made little to no difference to the present numbers. In a national ‘squirrel survey’ in June 2018, just shy of three million grey squirrels were spotted in the United Kingdom, whereas there were a little over a quarter of a million viewings of red squirrels. When the UK House of Lords library researchers looked into this issue in 2023 and published the research paper entitled ‘Woodland cover and grey squirrels’ they had examined the possible causes of the escalation of the shrinking of the population of red squirrels, and found evidence suggesting that the population had decreased rapidly over the last three decades. They pinpointed the start of this to around 1995.
Why the sudden change?
The question observers will ask is what has caused the sharp downturn in the population of red squirrels in this country? Is it all down to the grey squirrel? The House of Lords Library research identified some factors which are closely linked to grey squirrels which have contributed to the lowering of the red squirrel population. These are:
- adenovirus (adenovirus is killing reds and is not passed on by greys)
- squirrel pox, a virus infection that is transmitted to red squirrels by their grey squirrel counterparts who carry it but don’t get ill from it
- the sharing of resources (food, habitat) between grey and red squirrels
- loss or change of habitat
Growing opposition to culling wild animals
Campaign group Animal Aid has not stayed quiet in its opposition to this policy of culling grey squirrels. The group believes it not ‘justifiable or practical’ to attempt to ‘force certain species to live in an environment which can no longer support them’. Animal Aid believes grey squirrels are being ‘demonised and blamed for several misdeeds, including the lowering the numbers of squirrels and the harm done to trees. The group labelled the approach favoured by the UK Government as a ‘misguided’ mission to ‘increase the population of red squirrels’. In its view, it is ‘disappointing’ that the ‘culling of grey squirrels’ has been ‘legitimised’.
It observes that the same voices opposing the badger cull favour harming grey squirrels. Badgers are being culled due to the fear of them spreading bovine tuberculosis. The Wildlife Trust opposes culling, claiming ‘it is not the answer’, and recent research has thrown severe doubts on the idea that badgers spread tuberculosis to cattle in the first place. The group is of the view that people are being systematically ‘trained’ to inflict harm on grey squirrels and asks people to stop donating money to groups which favour the culling of grey squirrels.
What can be done? Feeding extra or contraceptives?
Animal Aid thinks another direction needs to be taken to improve the population of red squirrels one which does not damage grey squirrels. They suggest offering supplementary feeding and establishing red squirrels on islands (the latter would mean introducing a new species to an established habitat, which is as bad on a small island as it is on a large island and a threat to that island’s ecosystem.)
Feeding extra food to squirrels might be beneficial to population growth, but attempting to introduce them to an island, even if it may seem positive at first in terms of population growth, carries the risk that the population numbers may reach a peak followed by a steep decline as found by a study by Julio, Hajj and others, plus it will upset the ecosystem they were introduced into.
Interestingly, as part of the Government’s Animal and Plant Health Agency, the APHA Wildlife Team aims to lower the population of grey squirrels by using a contraceptive, which is administered in a bait. If effective, this could provide a more animal-friendly way to control the population size than culling.
The debate continues
This is a heated debate, and it will be interesting to see if the campaigns to stop the culling of the population of grey squirrels will make any difference.
