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The Red Squirrel Population
The Red Squirrel population in Scotland has been decimated in the past by the gradual expansion of the Grey Squirrel variety.
There is still a viable red native squirrel population in woods north of Torphins, owned by the Learney estate.
Vounteers have erected and maintain feeder stations, as well as monitoring the group. But there is more good news:
Red Squirrel
Courtesy of Press and Journal.
Aberdeenshires entire population of grey squirrels is to be exterminated in an effort to save the strongholds of their red cousins further north.
The cull is part of a 1.3 million pound project in February 2009 involving the Scottish Wild-life Trust (SWT), Scottish Natural Heritage, Forestry Commission Scotland and the landowners' group Scottish Rural Property and Business Association.
Stuart Brooks, director of conservation at SWT, said the Aberdeen area is the priority for the project, which aims to maintain a red only status in Highland and Argyll and to regain the red only situation in Aberdeenshire.
Greys in Perthshire and Angus may also be targeted in the campaign, called Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels.
Volunteers, control officers and landowners will be asked to trap greys in a cage and hit them or shoot them in the back of the head.
Extermination of greys in the Aberdeen area is to begin in spring or summer, said Mr Brooks. But it could be years until greys are extinct in the city. Cecilia Rogers, of the Grampian Squirrel Group, said it is not known how many greys live in the city, but it could be more than 1,000.
North-east red squirrel conservation officer Stephen Willis said extermination of greys could be complete across Aberdeen city and shire within five years. He said work to control greys is already being carried out on the edge of Aberdeen and in places such as Banchory.
Advocates for Animals said it is against the cull of the sentient animals, whose only crime is successfully adapting to their environments. Its campaigns director, Ross Minett, said it backs action to save red squirrels.
But he added: You do not save squirrels by killing them. We need positive measures such as habitat management and development of a vaccine to the squirrel pox virus, rather than a knee-jerk reaction that will only serve to condemn thousands of grey squirrels to death.
Red squirrels were once common throughout the UK, but it is estimated there are only 121,000 today, 75% of which are in Scotland. Their American cousins, the greys, were introduced to the UK in 1876, but their numbers have expanded since.
Greys are better at finding food and carry the squirrel-pox virus, which does not affect them but kills reds.
Mr Brooks said if it were possible to control greys through managing habitat and developing a squirrelpox vaccine, a cull would be unnecessary. He said: Work is under way on a vaccine but it is not around the corner. To do nothing now will certainly consign our native squirrel to a painful and lingering death.
Grampian Squirrel Group
SNH Report no. 089
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