SQUIRRELS
See
Also: ANIMALS;
THE ROYAL PARKS
The red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)
is native to Britain, the grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is a
recent arrival from North America.1
Other than in a regions that have isolated woodland, it is very rare for
people to see a red squirrel in most of Britain.
Reds are more agile than grey
squirrels. This enables them to thrive
in pure coniferous forests since they can reach cones that the greys
cannot. Reds do not fare as well as greys
in deciduous woodland, especially so when they are competing with one another;
broadleaved woods are capable of supporting six times as many greys as
reds. This is because the latter are
fussier eaters than the former. There
are some berries and seeds (ash, hawthorn, rowan, and yew) that reds can eat
but which greys will not. Greys are able
to eat acorns safely whereas reds, if they eat too many, are killed by the
tannin that the nuts contain.
In 2006 it was reported grey squirrels might
be a major factor of the inability of songbird populations to recover their
former levels in woodlands.
In 2008 there were estimated to be 120,000
red squirrels remaining in Britain.
In 2014 the Solicitor-General informed the
House of Commons that the government was going to repeal the Grey Squirrels
(Prohibition of Importation & Keeping Order) of 1937. Under the measure, the authorities had been
able to criminally prosecute anyone who observed a grey squirrel and failed to
report the sighting to the relevant department.
People convicted of the offence could be fined up to 5.
In 2015 it was reported that urban squirrels
were more inclined to use visual signals rather than audio ones than their
rural counterparts were inclined to.
In 2016 there were estimated to be about 4m
grey squirrels in the U.K. and 160,000 red ones.
Squirrels can live to be 25-years-old. Rats only three.
Location: Kensington Gardens, W8 4PX
(red, yellow)
Website: www.britishredsquirrel.org.uk
(British Red Squirrel) www.rsst.org.uk
(The Red Squirrel Survival Trust)
1. It should be born in mind that foxes and numerous species of
bird have been taken from Britain and established in breeding communities
across the Anglophone world.
The Arrival of Grey Squirrels
During the late 19thC and early 20thC
there were a number of separate releases of greys squirrels. The animals were regarded as being ornamental
and it was thought that they would live in small pockets close to where they
had been let loose. The 11th
Duke of Bedford maintained a population at Woburn, his country seat in
Bedfordshire.
The Destructive Imported Animals Act of 1933
made it illegal to keep, release, or import greys with a licence to do so. In 1944, because of food shortages caused by
the Second World War, County War Agricultural Executive Committees started
giving out free shotgun cartridges to registered squirrel shooting clubs. These mushroomed. However, with time it became apparent that
the system was being widely abused;
In 1952 the Forestry Commission proposed
that a tail bounty should be introduced.
The following year it was. The
scheme did not stop the greys from continuing to spread. It was ended in 1958.
The Squirrels Order of 1973 made it legal to
use warfarin to poison in areas where there were no reds left. In 2014 the European Union ended the
production and sale of warfarin as squirrel bait.
Black Squirrels
Grey squirrels coats are composed of a
mixture of black, white, and yellow hairs.
In 1912 black squirrels were observed for the first time. These were genetically variant grey
squirrels. They do not have a section of
D.N.A. that the greys possess.
Therefore, their fur is only black in colour. Their reputation for aggressiveness has not
been substantiated in the scientific literature.
It was reported in 2008 that in some parts
of East Anglia black squirrels were becoming the majority of the squirrels
present. It was regarded as being a
possibility that this development might presage an explosion of their
population.
Squirrel Meat
Squirrel meat is dark. Its taste is sweet, nutty, and gamey. It akin to that of over-hung pheasant.1 The natives of Wisconsin regard the back legs
as being the most delicious part of the creature.
1. Jonathan Raban Old Glory Picador (1986) 163-4
David Backhouse 2024