| Re: Is It Native?
Probably you already read it but I found interesting this news that appeared in bbc today. They are requiring volunteers to count red squirels, however part of the news that got my attention was that years ago, they were considered vermins:
"But for 43 years, from 1903, there was an active effort on estates across the Highlands to trap, shoot and kill reds.
By 1946, the Highland Squirrel Club had killed 102,900 squirrels and paid out £1,504 in bounties.
Tails were submitted as proof of kills.
Reds were extinct, or on the brink of extinction, in the Highlands by the 1800s because of a loss of woodland habitat.
In 1844, Lady Lovat of Beaufort Estate near Beauly, succeeded in getting the government to re-introduce the squirrels to the Highlands.
By the 1900s, the squirrels had spread from the boundaries of the estates where they were released and were blamed for causing damage to Scots pine and other conifers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8278286.stm
If they were chased in such a degree I wonder if actually grey squirrel are a threat to native reds. Finally grey squirrels cannot defend themselves. With this news I could say that people are probably the main factor that began to reduce to red squirrels populations.  |