Letter: Saving squirrels

M Reynolds (Letters, 23 March) asks me to suggest how to protect red squirrels. The answer is very simple: improve their habitat by planting more conifer trees and stop them from being exploited for tourism, which can spread disease throughout the forest environment.

It's no coincidence that the greatest number of red squirrels inhabit the area of Great Britain least populated by humans.

Early in the last century, out of 44 districts in England where red squirrels had pox virus, only four districts had grey squirrels present. This suggests that squirrel-pox virus is endemic within the red squirrel population and that grey squirrels are victims of a campaign of unfair vilification.

Culling grey squirrels is not the answer.

In Northumbria, 22,500 were killed between 2007 and 2009 and despite claims that the county would be "grey free" by 2010, sightings in one target area increased threefold at the end of last year.

The complex issue of reduction killings increases the fecundity of the target species and leads to population increase.

The 2007 Scottish Squirrel Survey maps produced by Scottish Natural Heritage in April 2007 showed that red squirrels can increase in numbers where grey squirrels are present and decrease where there are none.

Angus Macmillan

Near Balloch

Dunbartonshire