One snowy dawn in March, I went hunting for squirrels in the Lake District. In the silent and empty woods beneath the Aira Force waterfall, the only thing moving was a solitary red squirrel, balanced on a nut-filled feeder hanging from a tree. If you grew up, as I did, with the grey squirrel, seeing […]
Tag: grey squirrel
POLL: Should the Wildlife Trust’s campaign to slaughter grey squirrels be stopped?
An army of 5,000 volunteers is being sought to save the red squirrel from extinction by monitoring populations, educating children – and bludgeoning grey squirrels to death. The Wildlife Trusts’ biggest-ever recruitment drive is focused on areas of northern England, north Wales and Northern Ireland where invasive grey squirrels first introduced by the Victorians are […]
POLL: Should the grey squirrel be culled to protect red squirrels?
The squirrels look as though they make everyday life into a game; they have the kind of mischievous intelligence once attributed by folklore to hidden, supernatural creatures such as fairies, elves, goblins and the like. These grey and ginger squirrels are tricky. To some people they are a delight to watch; to others they are […]
POLL: Should the European Union squirrel cull be stopped?
Politicians from the European Union have introduced a new law obliging the United Kingdom, Ireland and Italy to organise the killing of hundreds of thousands of grey squirrels, every year from 2016, using methods that include poisoning, bludgeoning to death or trapping and shooting. This horrid and inhumane “programme” is to be sponsored from the […]
POLL: Should invasive species be eradicated in the EU?
Anyone caught exporting or possessing invasive species such as grey squirrels, ruddy ducks and water hyacinth in the EU will soon face heavy fines and confiscations, under a new blacklist filed at the WTO, which the Guardian has seen. Raccoons, Javan mongooses, and South American coypus are among the 37 types of flora and fauna […]
POLL: Should the grey squirrel be culled to protect the red squirrel?
The last safe haven for red squirrels on the English mainland is under unprecedented threat from an invasion of grey squirrels. Conservationists protecting the native reds in Kielder Forest, Northumberland, say sightings of grey squirrels on the fringes of the forest have escalated in recent months and there have been more than a dozen greys […]
How to eradicate grey squirrels without firing a shot
Is there anything more stupid than the government’s plan to kill grey squirrels? I ask not because I believe – as Animal Aid does – that grey squirrels are harmless. Far from it: they have eliminated red squirrels from most of Britain since their introduction by Victorian landowners, and are now doing the same thing […]
Poll: Should the grey squirrel be culled with public money?
Landowners are to be paid millions of pounds of public money to cull grey squirrels under the first national plan for managing their numbers. Under the scheme, designed to protect red squirrels and woodland, only those who agree to deal with the animals on their land will be eligible for forestry grants from the Government […]