Squirrel Myths
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Do greys harm reds?
Greys are hardier squirrels than reds, weighing almost twice as much and have adapted to modern Britain far more effectively than native reds, who have failed to thrive in our deforested, urban country. You can see in our urban environments and concrete cities that grey squirrels have managed to thrive. It’s not their fault that reds have been unable to do the same.
Contrary to popular belief, grey squirrels do not attack or chase reds from their homes. But when they do live side-by-side, greys are far more effective at finding available food sources and reds suffer as a result.
The squirrel pox virus that some grey squirrels carry is touted as the main reason for red squirrel decline. It’s a disease which is benign in grey squirrels but can spread to reds and become fatal.
A small number of reds have been shown to develop immunity to the pox, providing hope that the two species could live more easily with each other in the future.1
The pox certainly has played a part in lowering the red squirrel population but far too much emphasis has been put on this one reason in a dogged attempt to eradicate human guilt from the problem. The money spent on ineffective, expensive and cruel culls would be far better spent on finding a vaccination against squirrel pox rather than encouraging endless and pointless culls.
‘It is widely argued that controlling grey squirrel numbers is the best way of conserving red squirrels. However, there is little evidence to support this belief.’2
In a Mammal Society survey carried out in 2002, 45 percent of UK respondents stated that they like grey squirrels, where just 24 percent stated they disliked them.3 This positive percentage is being damaged by the propaganda being pushed by the red squirrel lobby in order to demonise the grey squirrel and dupe the public into believing this propaganda and therefore tolerating the mass inhuman slaughter of the greys.
References
Focusing On Wildlife, 2014. ‘Grey Squirrels versus Red Squirrels – The Facts.’ Focusing On Wildlife. 12 November. Available at https://focusingonwildlife.com/news/gray-squirrels-versus-red-squirrels-the-facts/ [Accessed 17 July 2020].
S. Harris, CD. Soulsbury & G. Iossa. November 2008.
Melissa J. Merrick et al., ‘Urban Grey Squirrel Ecology, Associated Impacts, and Management Challenges’, in Grey Squirrel, ed. Shuttleworth et al., p.66.
Text has been kindly reproduced, with a few minor alterations, from:
The vast majority of organisations are informing the public that grey squirrels cannot be released if they are trapped, and that they must be killed. This is false. If the squirrel is trapped (for example, in a bird feeder, on your property, or in netting in a park), free it. The law still permits freeing grey squirrels and releasing them where they were found. www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/wildlife/squirrels/injured
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