Grey squirrels (though some have ginger fur) mostly eat hazelnuts and pine cones, caching food to take back to their ‘drey’ made out of leaves and bark in trees. Red squirrels are smaller with larger ears.
Grey squirrels have been made out to be ‘villains’ in the media, due to carrying Squirrelpox virus (which they are immune to, and red squirrels are not). So now the law is that wildlife rescues have to illegally help them if found, or else they are killed.
However, the truth is far more complicated. The logging industry has decimated natural habitats of red squirrels. And without proper homes and food, they have low immunity, so of course fall prey to this awful disease.
Red and grey squirrels live and eat differently. Greys eat high-calorie nuts (not peanuts as they carry a mouldy toxin) as their main diet, red squirrels feed more on small seeds from conifer cones.
Don’t encourage squirrels to your garden. And avoid ‘squirrel-proof feeders’, as these clever creatures get trapped. Also fix roof damage, and block access points where needed.
London charity Urban Squirrels is campaigning to change the law, so grey squirrels can legally be rescued and released. It says that feeding stations to help red squirrels, ironically concentrate small areas for the squirrelpox virus to spread.
All squirrels (both red and grey) promote healthy forests, by helping seed dispersal. Neither red or grey squirrels were originally native to us (grey squirrels came from North America, and red squirrels from Scandinavia).
This is why red squirrels thrive in forests (like in Northumberland and the Scottish Highlands) where there are pine trees, as that’s kind of their natural territory.
This is a similar story to cattle TB and badgers. Knee-jerk reactions to ‘cull badgers’ when cattle-to-cattle vaccination is the simple answer.
A report from Bristol University says culling greys won’t work, and there are simple answers to help prevent this awful disease (which grey squirrels are immune to, but red squirrels are not):
Move red squirrels to England’s Islands
This is already being done on some islands (including Cornwall) with great success. These islands don’t have grey squirrels, so reds can thrive, without risk of the virus.
Wait for the Squirrelpox Vaccination
This is apparently pending. It would enable red squirrels to also have immunity to the disease, and then grey squirrels would not be killed. This is an easy, kind and cheap solution.
Use oral contraceptives to control grey squirrels
This is done using a kind of ‘Nutella bait’ to administer medicine, which would stop over-population. This would also be done to give the proposed vaccine orally, which would be easier than catching and injecting evasive squirrels.
Rewild Pine Martens
Pine martens are easy to recognise, with their long bushy tails and ‘yellow bibs’. But they are rare in England, more common in Scotland. Pine martens are part of the Mustelid family, which also includes badgers, otters, polecats, weasels and minks.
Pine martens are often mistaken for polecats and American minks, imported for the fur industry years ago.
They mostly eat fruit (blackberries, bilberries and rowan berries in summer), but they also eat insects, carrion (dead animals) and alas endangered water voles (but habitat restoration and nature-friendly farming are the ways to save these tiny creatures).
However, pine martens also eat grey squirrels, so they are the perfect solution to ‘keep nature in balance’. In Scotland (where they have more pine forests and pine martens combined), red squirrels are thriving.
Pine martens climb trees to hunt for wildlife, which is why they are one of the few mammals able to naturally hunt grey squirrels. But to do this, restoring forests is equally important.
Pine martens are nocturnal predators, that are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Pine martens have recently been rewilded on Dartmoor (one of Devon’s two National Parks), after an absence of 150 years. They have been released in an area free from people and busy roads.
It is very important (as with beavers) that releases are done by people who know what they are doing, so they know where to release for the animals’ safety.
Rogue releases have resulted in some being found dead on roads, after they travel during breeding seasons to find a mate.
Books to Learn More About Squirrels
Read A Scurry of Squirrels. This book by wildlife rehabilitator Polly Pullar looks at how she has created spectacular results in helping to save red squirrels, not through culling grey squirrels but by creating habitats akin to how they live in the wild. Also read Squirrel Nation by environmental professor Peter Coates.
