Squirrel Myths
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Red Squirrel Decline.
Are the greys responsible?
Long before grey squirrels ever arrived in Britain, red squirrels were already in steep decline. Reds struggled with deforestation, habitat fragmentation, harsh winters, disease, and widespread human persecution.1
Far from being adored, red squirrels were long considered a pest species. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, estates and forestry organisations ran “squirrel bounty clubs” explicitly created to kill reds. The most extreme example, the Highland Squirrel Club, killed over 100,000 red squirrels between 1903 and 1941.2
Red squirrel declines were already severe due to the destruction of their woodland habitat. Britain lost the majority of its ancient woodland over centuries through farming, fuel extraction, and war.3 Massive conifer plantations temporarily boosted red numbers in the late 19th and early 20th century, but this artificial increase masked an underlying long-term decline tied to habitat loss.4
Importantly, the rise of grey squirrels does not correlate in any simple way with the fall of red squirrels. In the 1950s, Britain still had hundreds of thousands to millions of red squirrels, even though greys were already well-established across England.5 Today the UK has around 140,000 reds and 2.5 million greys.6 The underlying cause of the red decline is habitat loss, which greys adapt to more effectively.
Reds have since been rebranded as a symbol of Britain’s wildlife—but this romantic modern image obscures the fact that human activity, not greys, is what has driven red squirrels into the ground.
As with badgers being wrongly blamed for bovine TB, the hatred once directed at red squirrels has simply been transferred to greys. The UK’s 100,000 badger cull, which cost millions yet achieved negligible disease reduction, parallels the misguided attempt to blame greys for red decline.⁽⁷⁾ Scientific reviews show that culling greys has little impact on overall population trends—and can even increase local grey density through rapid recolonisation.7
The overwhelming evidence shows that humans—not greys—cause most red-squirrel deaths. Across studies, up to 94% of unnatural deaths in red-squirrel populations were directly linked to human activity, including roadkill, felling, dogs, cats, and disturbance.8
Each year in Britain, forest clearing takes place even during red-squirrel breeding season, killing dependent young who cannot escape.⁽⁸⁾ Forestry operations often fail to retain woodland corridors, preventing squirrels from relocating and causing local extinctions.9 This pattern persists in both commercial plantations and publicly managed forests.
Scientific research consistently shows that red squirrels are extremely vulnerable to habitat fragmentation,10,11,12,13,14 far more so than greys, which can travel several miles to locate new habitat. These same forestry practices that destroy red habitat inadvertently accelerate grey expansion, because greys thrive in fragmented, mixed woodland and urbanised landscapes.
Across decades of research, scientists overwhelmingly agree:
Loss of habitat quality and continuity—not grey squirrels—is the primary driver of red squirrel decline in the UK.14,15,16,17
References
1. Coates, P. (2023). Squirrel Nation: Reds, Greys and the Meaning of Home. Reaktion Books.
2. Highland Archive Centre. Highland Squirrel Club Report for 1941.
https://www.ambaile.org.uk/detail/en/5278/1/EN5278-highland-squirrel.htm
3. Vidal, J. (2008). The UK’s ancient woodland is being lost ‘faster than the Amazon’. The Guardian.
4. Lurz, P.W.W., Garson, P.J. & Ogilvie, J.F. (1998). Conifer species mixtures, cone crops and red squirrel conservation. Forestry 71: 67–71.
5. Historical population estimates cited in Gurnell, J. & Pepper, H. (1991). Conserving the Red Squirrel. Forestry Commission Research Note 205.
6. The Wildlife Trusts. Red Squirrels.
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/saving-species/red-squirrels
7. Harris, S., Soulsbury, C., & Iossa, G. (2008). Grey squirrel population management. University of Bristol / OneKind.
8. Shuttleworth (2001); Dutton (2004); LaRose et al. (2010); Simpson et al. (2013).
9. Lurz, P.W.W. et al. (2003). Planning a red squirrel conservation area. Forestry 76: 95–108.
10. Gurnell, J. & Pepper, H.W. (1991). Forestry Commission RIN 205.
11. Rodríguez, A. & Andrén, H. (1999). Red squirrel distribution in fragmented landscapes. Journal of Applied Ecology 36: 649–662.
12. Huxley, L. (2003). The Grey Squirrel Review. ESI Dorset.
13. Verbeylen, G. et al. (2003). Population dynamics in fragmented red squirrel habitat. Ecography 26: 118–128.
14. Flaherty, S. et al. (2012). Forest stand structure and red squirrel habitat use. Forestry 85: 437–444.
15. Verboom, B. & van Apeldoorn, R. (1990). Effects of habitat fragmentation on red squirrels. Landscape Ecology 4: 171–176.
16. Bryce, J., Cartmel, S. & Quine, C.P. (2005). Habitat use by red and grey squirrels. Forestry Commission Information Note.
17. Lurz, P.W.W. et al. (1998). Conifer species mixtures, cone crops and red squirrel conservation. Forestry 71: 67–71.
Some 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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