How to save the red squirrel? It's a grey area

IN ENGLAND an edict has gone out to shoot them by the hundred thousand. In Scotland a five-year survey and establishment of refuges is seen as the answer.

"They" are grey squirrels, an estimated three million of which in Britain are gradually driving their smaller, less adaptable, red cousins further and further north.

Reds have gone from England except in a handful of redoubts such as the Isle of Wight, Anglesey, part of Lancashire, Northumberland's Kielder Forest and the Lake District.

The fear is that the same might happen in Scotland, where about 75 per cent of Britain's surviving 160,000 reds are thought to live - although not even squirrel experts, and there seem to be a remarkable number of them, know if those estimates are anywhere near accurate.

The fear intensified after five cases of squirrel pox virus were identified in Dumfries-shire last year. Greys carry the virus but seldom die from it. Reds that contract it die quickly.

This reality is a long way from the first appearance of reds in Britain about 10,000 years ago and their long woodland dominance, or Beatrix Potter's Squirrel Nutkin. Nutkin was created when reds thrived throughout Britain, including Potter's Lake District - and before a pair of American greys were released in a Cheshire park in 1892.

The red hordes of the late 1800s were proof that nothing is certain in nature, because the species had been in serious danger of disappearing at the end of the 18th century as large tracts of British woodland were felled to build ships. Reds recovered and spread as Britain re-planted, becoming a pest by the start of 20th century. In three years in the early 1930s the Highland Squirrel Club destroyed 82,000 reds.

Now the pushy greys, coccidiosis and what was thought to be a parapox virus threaten their future again, although Dr Peter Nettleton and his team at Moredun Research Institute have established that the virus lethal to reds is not what it was first thought to be.

He said: "We now have much more information about the genetic make-up of the virus, which is not a parapox virus as was originally thought, but a pox virus. However, although we know it relates to orf in sheep and the virus that causes myxamatosis in rabbits, it seems to be different from all other pox viruses.

"We have no idea yet how it spreads among greys or from greys to reds, so advice on control is difficult."

Until last spring Scotland had been lucky with the pox virus. That was when five greys with pox virus antibody were found in the Newcastleton area.

Nettleton said: "When greys carrying the virus move into a new area, the reds get the disease and disappear quickly. We have seen this in Northumberland, Durham and Cumbria in the last six years.

"It might be two years before reds start dying, but when they do their population declines are up to 25 times greater in areas where the pox virus is present in greys than in areas where it is not. That suggests that within the next two years reds in the Newcastleton area could die from pox virus. Understanding its epidemiology in squirrels should be a research priority."

That, and refuges, or "red squirrel priority woodland". All this needs effort, planning and co-operation.

Greys arrived from the oak and hickory forests of North America - first releases in Scotland were believed to be in 1919. They can digest foods such as acorns and hazelnuts more efficiently, and when less ripe, than reds.

Establishing woodland refuges, ideally large ones of more than 2,000 hectares, with Norway spruce, Scots pine, Corsican pine and larch as the main trees would help reds, as would large areas of broad leaved trees with small seeds such as rowan, willow, birch, alder and ash.

Although reds, one of 267 species of squirrel, are found across Europe and Asia, they are threatened only in Britain and to a small extent, so far, in Italy - the only countries where American greys have been released.

It is accepted that exterminating greys is impossible. There is also the problem, said Richard Williamson of Buccleuch Estates, which has worked hard over the past ten years to deal with the problem, that to the public "a squirrel is a squirrel".

They have also been described as "a visible sign of the country's thriving wildlife which gives city dwellers a link with the countryside".

Williamson said: "In city parks people feed greys. We are never going to get rid of greys, but they can be controlled if there is co-operation among land users.

"Along with control, 'islands' or refuges for reds are needed. You have to give them a suitable habitat, with seeds they like. Greys are much bigger and will scavenge. They don't fight - greys just eat reds out of house and home."

So not for Scotland anything on the scale of what the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs recently announced was essential for England - "humane and targeted control" that might remove several hundred thousand greys.

That is not only to save reds, but because greys cause more damage to trees and are more likely to kill small birds.

Williamson said: "There is a good chance of maintaining reds in Scotland by co-operation that includes private and state foresters.

"What we hope to do is get through the next few difficult years - there's no risk of reds becoming extinct, but they are under serious pressure."

A Scottish Executive spokeswoman said: "There are no plans for mass killing of greys in Scotland. We have a red squirrel strategy and habitat plans. The key objective is to maintain areas where reds thrive and extend them if possible. Long-term habitat provision is the most successful route we can take."

Dr Mel Tonkin, co-ordinator for the Scottish Squirrel Survey, which started this month, said: "We hope to identify where greys have got to as well as where reds are. It will be over five years, and every sighting is important. That's why we're encouraging as much public participation as possible."

Rhona Brankin, deputy minister for environment, does her bit at Blair Atholl today by encouraging children to take part. Next month a conference will be held in Edinburgh to discuss future plans.

Tonkin admitted that there was criticism that Scottish Natural Heritage and the Executive should be doing more sooner to preserve reds. But she says a gradual approach will work, backed by the remarkable number of voluntary squirrel groups throughout the country - not all of them ready to shoot greys first and ask questions later.