In Defence of the Grey Squirrel

Hello and welcome to the Wildlife Matters podcast.

I'm your host, Nigel Palmer.

In this week's episode, we're going to take a look at why grey squirrels are getting such a bad rap here in the UK and how come some of our conservation organizations are proactively going out and killing them.

We're also going to be dipping our toe into the murky oceans to see the devastating effects that our plastic pollution from man is doing to our oceans.

That's all coming up right after this week's nature news.

So in this week's nature news, we're going to be taking a look at the very curious announcement from the hunting office last week in which they are about to launch a new version.

Just shows the confusion these guys are in.

They're calling it the British Hound Sports association, or the BHSA.

They do love their acronyms.

And this is supposed to be a governing body overseeing all Huntsde and making sure they act responsibly and within the law, which is a complete and utter by.

Well, you know what I'm going to say, but that just doesn't make sense.

Looking at their press release that came out from Andrew Osborne, who is the current chairman of the master of the Foxhounds association.

He said that in explanation that the British Hound Sports association was a separate new regulatory body to administer all regulation and disciplinary matters for members and member Huns, according to the rules set by the BHSA, which will be called the Houn Sports Regulatory Authority.

The new constitution and rules for both organisations have been drawn up and will present it to members.

They're also pleased to announce, I can't believe that this is so factual, but that their first ever chairman will be William Viscount astonished.

And that just has to be a joke because he is David Cameron's father in law.

He's also a former master and chairman of the old Berkshire Hunt.

Viscount Astor is said to be delighted to have taken on the role, which will be broad and inclusive, working to improve accountability, transparency and the confidence in hunting activities and increase recognition of the immeasurable contribution hunt's play in the countryside.

Can you believe this rubbish?

We also hope you agree he will make a great chairman.

Yes, I'm sure there'll be a laugh a minute.

For three years will fulfill.

For three years, along with Andrew Osborne and Matthew Hicks as joint chairman, the current hunting associations will continue to manage the kennel stub books and support good hound breeding and play a key role in assisting at a regional level.

However, they will no longer be directly responsible for the governance of the hunts, kennels and hunting activities.

The goal of this new organization is said to be working hard on the protection, promotion and preservation of the sport we love.

Hunting is not a sport.

It's a cruel and barbaric way of killing animals.

It's so archaic and they also state that they're ensuring it has a place in the modern countryside.

Well, once again, we can't disagree with that statement anymore.

Hunting has no place in anywhere, let alone in the british countryside.

And yes, we all know it continues.

We all know why.

It's because the hunt savs exposed the webinar of the hunting office and people of, you know, there were people convicted, there are people who should have been convicted that still haven't been, and where they were actively and caught out, flouting the law and telling the hunters how to evade the law and to calm out police force.

I mean, what sort of people are they?

Apart from the monstrous killing of wild animals just for their so called sport and pleasure?

They're liars, they're deceitful, and they're trying to pull the wool over our eyes once again with this.

So we'll be monitoring what happens in following this AGM and coming back to this, no doubt in future nature news.

But let's just make one thing clear.

Anything that comes out of the hunting office is not to be believed.

That's been this week's nature news.

And coming up next, we're going to dip our toe into the oceans and have a look at the devastating effects of plastic pollution.

And welcome back.

The oceans are becoming more and more polluted and to the point that, I mean, did you know that around 80% of the plastic found in the sea comes from the land?

So how does it get there?

Well, plastic is light and it doesn't degrade, so it can enter our water sources in so many ways, discarded plastic can come from people mindlessly dropping litter in their own street, from landfill sites, or from products we use to exfoliate, whiten our teeth, or even clean in our clothes.

Our towns and cities here in the UK have been designed to drain water from the streets, to prevent flooding.

These extensive waterways transport plastic waste through drainage systems, ending up in our canals, rivers and of course, eventually into the sea.

Around the world, around 8 million tonnes of plastic ends up in our oceans every year.

And it's thought that around 50% of these are single use plastic items.

So let's just have a little look at the waste management and what's happening.

Well, recent research shows that around 50% of the ocean's plastic originates from just five countries.

They are China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

Although it must be said that these countries are importing waste from the west, including the UK, for processing.

Well, that surely needs further research into why wealthier countries such as the UK are not taking responsibility for their own bloody message.

And also a deep look into the waste processing capabilities of these countries, because it's clearly not working right now.

If waste is getting into our oceans, it appears that some western countries do process the more valuable plastics, known as pet, which are the type that your water bottles are made from.

But plastic in the ocean remains pretty much a hidden problem for most of us.

It's believed that around 250 million people earn a living from fishing or the seas.

And up to 70% of humans rely on fish as their primary source of protein.

In a marine environment, plastic is capable of absorbing harmful toxins from water and concentrating the toxic levels of chemicals such as PCB's, PAHS and DDT.

The plastic is in the oceans, coming up through the plankton and making its way up the food chain.

Ultimately, it's coming into us.

And it's not just plastic we can see as a danger to us.

Plastic is broken down by wave action and uv light into small microplastics.

Microplastics are eaten by filter feeding plankton, which is near the bottom of the food chain.

But the effects lead throughout the food chain, and ultimately to us humans.

Long term exposure to these toxins has been linked to serious health conditions such as cancer, diabetes, a low sperm count, altered immune systems and developmental problems in children.

There's also an issue with entanglement.

Plastic affects marine animals by physically entangling them, leading to distress, ingestion, injury and drowning.

Scientists have found that over 650 species have been caught within plastic, and one in three marine mammal species have been found entangled in marine litter.

One plastic bag can kill an animal, including those who can survive eating a toxic portuguese man of war jellyfish.

It's estimated that there are now 46,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometre in the world's oceans, with 5 trillion, yeah, 5 trillion pieces of plastic floating on the oceans.

Worldwide, scientists estimates repeatedly show that the concentrations of plastic are increasing.

With an average density of 9.8 kg/km² this plastic can be mistaken for food.

Around 500 species of marine mammals have been known to either have eaten or become entangled in plastic.

This includes seabirds, many of whom feed their chicks plastic after mistaking it for food.

Whales, dolphins, seals, turtles and many species of fish have also been found to contain ingested plastic.

Turtles are known to have been affected by plastic litter in a range of ways.

You see, turtles use sight and scent to select their prey, and often mistake plastic as prey.

As marine plastic can look and smell like natural prey.

Research has shown that plastic found in the digestive tracts of turtles differs between species, depending on what they feed on.

If a turtle accidentally ingests plastic, it not only makes the animal feel falsely full, leading to possible starvation, but it can leave internal injuries leading to infection.

The presence of plastic in the digestive tract can also affect the animals buoyancy.

Turtles entangled in floating plastic are subjected to increased drag when swimming, leading to possible starvation or drowning.

Litter on the beach can also be a hazard to turtles.

Female turtles come to the beach every year to lay their eggs, and their emerging hatchlings become entangled in plastic and other waste on their journey back to the sea.

The discarded plastic can even affect turtles before they hatch from their eggs.

As the sex of turtles is determined by the temperature of the nest during development, the buildup of litter on the sand could affect the temperature of the nest, leading to an unnatural sex ratio of the hatchlings.

Whales and dolphins are also affected.

There are two types of whales, particularly the baleen and toothed whales.

Baleen whales have two comb like keratin plates in their mouths that they use to filter their prey through, whilst tooth whales, such as dolphins and porpoises, have teeth, these differences have an effect on plastic ingestion.

Baleen whales take in large amounts of water each time they open their mouths to feed in.

Its up to 75% thousand litres in blue whales, resulting in the huge amount of plastic being consumed when ingested.

Microplastics found in the water or in the plankton that the whales are feeding on can lead to long term health issues.

Larger plastics can block their digestive tracts and lead to starvation.

And they're also in danger, especially from larger pieces of plastic that they're unable to filter out through their keratin plates once sucked in.

Globally, there are many recordings of whale deaths from plastic.

Tooth cetaceans, such as dolphins, are at more risk of ingesting large amounts of plastic, mainly due to mistaking the plastic for their food.

Although microplastics are also a threat.

In Germany, 13 stranded sperm whales all had the presence of plastic in them, ranging from 13 meters long fishing nets to a 70 centimeter long plastic component from the inside of a car.

Seabirds are highly susceptible to ingestion of plastic as they mistake floating debris for food.

Even worse, many seabirds regurgitate the plastic matter directly into the mouths of their chicks.

Plastics reported being ingested range from large plastic items to plastic bags and fishing lines.

These plastics become lodged in the digestive passages of birds, leading to a false sense of cessation or fullness, and ultimately to starvation.

And sharp pieces of plastic can damage the gut, resulting infection or death.

Over 50 species of seabird have been recorded as being snared in plastic, either after mistaking it for food or accidentally swimming into it.

Entanglement can lead to injury, infection or drowning of the seabird.

Discarded fishing gear and six pack can holders are the most common causes of entanglement.

Some seabirds also become entangled in plastic debris after using it to build their nests.

Hazardous chemicals concentrate on the surface of plastic particles, adding to toxins already present in the plastic from their production process.

These build up in the body tissues and can have a very serious detrimental effect on the health around 70% of plastic sinks.

But there is currently no global estimate of how much plastic is present in the deep sea.

Most seabird surveys have focused on the continental shelves that are shallow.

However, roughly half the earth's surface is the deep sea, where fewer studies have been carried out, as this environment is challenging and expensive to explore.

Deep sea plastic is likely to have travelled a long distance on the surface of the sea before being fouled by marine organisms and sinking.

It will then be swept in ocean currents and affected by the topography of the area before settling on the seabird with other litter, such as fishing gear and tyres.

Scientists recently found microplastic and fibres in the deep sea sediment.

Their presence in every sediment sample taken suggests that microplastic is abundant in our deep seas.

Can we really afford to continue our throwaway mentality and culture and leave our children and theirs to clean up this mess that we have made in our oceans?

Here at wildlife Matters, we don't believe so.

We think we need to take urgent action now to stop polluting our oceans and to clean out this plastic before we leave it to our kids and other generations to do that.

We'd love to hear your comments and any feedback on any of the matters that we are covering during the Wildlife Matters podcast.

Please do contact us.

You can drop us an email@infoildlifematters.org or have a look on our website if you'd just like to find out some more information.

And welcome back.

So this is the part of the Wildlife Matters podcast where we really want to hear from you.

I would love to be talking to some of you about the work that you're doing, be that direct action or wildlife rescue, or perhaps you're working on a local project, be that conserving or rewilding a landscape of specific species you're interested in and share your views that this is wildlife Matters is a community, and what it's about is sharing information collectively so we all learn and we can enjoy whatever your passion is.

So do come on and share it with us.

We would also love to be getting some suggestions from you on what you'd like us to be talking about.

We're covering a wide range of subjects here, but it's primarily based on british and world wildlife and looking at some of the things that are affecting it in this current day, but also some of the work that's been done to protect and conserve it as we go forwards.

So whatever it is you're doing to help nature, why not drop me a line and tell me about it?

Maybe we could be talking to you on an upcoming episode of the Wildlife Matters podcast.

So my name is Nigel and you can drop an email to me directly.

My email address is infoiledlifematters.org.

that's info@wildlifematters.org and next, we're going to be looking into why gray squirrels are getting such a bad rap here in the UK.

And why on earth are our conservation organizations proactively going out to kill them?

And welcome back in this week's wildlife matters, investigate why grey squirrels are getting such a bad rap here in the UK and what some of our conservation organizations are doing about it.

And I think you'll be quite shocked.

Most of us like squirrels.

I mean, they're entertaining to watch.

They're fast, dexterous, bushy tailed.

They're excellent climbers that can be seen scampering around in search of nuts and berries in our towns and parks and woodlands.

And for many people, they're possibly the only wild mammal they see regularly.

For most, especially in the south of Britain, that squirrel would have been a grey.

Greys have successfully colonised our urban and country landscapes in the 200 years since they were introduced into the UK by the Victorians as a novelty to add interest to their country estates.

So why are many of our best known conservation charities busily campaigning to save the Reds?

We hear scary talk of small strongholds, of red squirrels courageously holding out on small land boundaries and even islands.

We are told that our native squirrel is out competed by the non native read invasive greys and is on the verge of extinction.

We're told that the greys have driven our native reds from their home ranges, being bigger, faster and carrying a deadly squirrel pox virus, as if it's like a weapon that they can deploy when a red squirrel.

How strange.

Grey squirrels seem to provoke the strongest of reactions from animal loving Brits.

They have all the characteristics of animals that we tend to love, and yet they are actively persecuted by our conservation charities.

They're often referred to as tree rats and have recently been added to the invasive species list in England and Wales.

This means that an injured grey squirrel can no longer be taken to a wildlife rescue for help.

If it is, they are required by law to euthanize it, irrespective of the prognosis.

So let's have a look at some of the claims of the conservation charity.

The red squirrel was in trouble and is facing extinction in parts of the UK.

Well, deforestation for agriculture, fuel and war caused red squirrels to become extinct in Ireland and south Scotland as early as the 18th century and rare in the Scottish Highlands.

In 18, 37, 20,000 imported red squirrels were sold in London.

Many of those escaped into the wild.

The grey squirrel is widely accepted as the main reason for the decline of the red squirrel over the last century, boosted by the reintroduction of foreign reds and by a massive reforestation of conifers replacing the broadleaf woodland, red squirrel numbers recovered rapidly and by the late 18, hundreds reached peak numbers.

Although at that time, red squirrels were claimed to be a plague proportions.

Hence they were slaughtered in their hundreds of thousands as woodland pests who strip barkley trees, steal eggs from birds nests and raid gardens.

This all sounds so familiar.

A quote about red squirrels highlights our fickle relationship was squirrels in general.

It says it invades gardens and will take peas from their pods as cleanly as a man.

In spring, it turns carnivorous and eats eggs and young birds.

It damages trees by biting bark and preventing the flow of SAP.

The source was the natural history of animals by George Jennison, who was the curator of the Bellevue Zoological gardens.

Another claim is that grey squirrels compete with red squirrels for food and shelter.

Well, there's some truth in this.

Both reds and greys eat nuts and berries and share the same habitats.

In truth, greys are better adapted to broadleaf woodlands than reds, who are more arboreal and are more suited to pine and coniferous plantations.

Another claim is that grey squirrels carol squirrelpox virus and transmit this to the race.

Once infected, the red squirrels die of starvation or dehydration over a week or two.

Okay, so squirrel pox is a very emotive name and this statement infers intent on behalf of the grave to transmit its deadly disease.

This may be particularly relevant with our current experience of Covid-19 that can be translated between people who do not have any symptoms of the virus.

Okay, so the correct term for squirrel pox is parapox virus.

It affects both grey and red squirrels.

It is often alleged that greys carry the disease but are immune to the virus.

But that's not true.

What is true is that whilst both reds and greys carry parapox virus, the larger, stronger greys have developed some natural resistance to the virus and it is rarely fatal to them.

The parapox virus is fatal to nearly all reds.

Both species do suffer the same horrific effects of pox scabs forming usually around their rear legs and genitals.

This may sound familiar to you right now, as many more of us are aware of the impacts of a virus on a population due to current events.

Grey squirrels very rarely die from this disease as their population has developed some natural immunity, having been exposed to the virus for many years.

In sharp contrast, there are no known red squirrels that have developed immunity to the virus, and the mortality rate for an infected red squirrel in the wild appears to be 100%, most dying within four to five days of becoming infected.

Recently, there has been some anecdotal evidence on resistance to squirrelpox in the red population, including the finding of a healthy red squirrel with antibodies to the virus in congrega.

However, the mortality rate is still considered severe and certainly capable of local extinction of red squirrels in areas that succumb to the disease.

It is quite clear from the research in the first half of the 20th century that parapox virus was endemic in the red squirrel.

Okay, so it's clear that parapoxvirus is an aggressive, fatal disease that is species specific to squirrels.

It is also only recorded in the UK, but it is not present throughout Europe, where reds and greys live together in mixed populations.

This appears to be a UK only issue, but no one is asking the obvious question of why grey squirrels now occupy much of the UK.

But conservation management enables red squirrels to survive in some places.

Conservation management is one of those terms that says nothing and means different things to different people.

For instance here it could refer to using birch trees on the edge of a woodland specifically planted to detract squirrels from the inner broadleaf beech and oaks.

Or it could mean trapping squirrels, placing them in sacks and bludgeoning them to death.

In fact, in the case of many of the current save the reds camp, it actually means both.

Both the red and grey squirrels strip bark from trees and that can kill a tree.

However, it is sporadic from year to year and has been found to be nothing to do with food shortages.

It is, however, more prevalent where pheasants were being reared for shooting and fed on grain in winter, providing an extra food source for the squirrels.

You would think that a researcher would be keen to follow up on such a hypothesis, but we have been unable to trace any such scientific research.

Compared with the destruction of trees by human beings, damage from squirrels is totally insignificant, except for some mostly aesthetic floors in high value trees that are grown for more than 100 years to become top quality furniture.

Whilst habitat management is used to protect red squirrels, this alone hasn't been enough to stop their decline.

So additional measures are required to save red squirrels from extinction.

So conservation management has failed.

And for additional measures, please read culling culling squirrels has become something of a british obsession over the last century more and we've come up with many ways of reducing both red and grey squirrel populations.

Let's take a look at a brief synopsis of our squirrel culling history.

At that time, around 10,000 sq mi of Britain had been colonized during the following six years.

Despite the campaign, the grades more than doubled their range.

Payers expense.

This mass culling failed to prevent grey squirrels from increasing both in numbers and range.

Over 1 million squirrels have been killed under the four year bounty scheme, costing british taxpayers.

That's you and me, at least 3 million pounds at today's value.

And yet the grey squirrels were more numerous than ever and covered an extended range.

The Forestry Commission assured the RSPCA that this poisoning would cause little hazard to other woodland animals and that there were there was no evidence of secondary effects on predators such as foxes, stokes and weasels.

In reality, the anticoagulant poisons have killed thousands of non target animals, including domestic cats and dogs, in fact mostly dogs, and contaminated the entire wildlife food chain.

Anticoagulant poisoning leads to victims dying slowly over many days from internal bleeding.

It is described by the government's pest side safely directed as markedly inhumane.

It is particularly cruel for squirrels, with the Forestry Commission itself admitting that post mortems of poison squirrels revealed that hemorrhage into joints was common.

This is such a painful and horrific way for them to die.

Scientific evidence shows that control of gray squirrels in some key places where they are in contact with red squirrels is necessary to ultimately prevent the extinction of red squirrels in the country.

Control of grey squirrels is a last resort and is restricted to a few targeted areas.

The Forestry Commission's anti grey propaganda campaign, supported by the National Trust, was intended to soften up the public opinion and MP's.

For the same reason, Scotland and Wales were excluded from this mass poisoning.

The government at the time were, following the advice of their department Mafdemen now Defra and land management experts for many decades without any successful conclusions or outcomes.

With this track record, why should we believe the latest statement to support the culling of squirrels?

And for anybody who knows anything about the current government's badger coal policy, just look at the similarities and how we're making the same mistakes over and over again.

There is currently no viable alternative solution.

There is no available vaccine or contraceptive for gray squirrels.

A future contraceptive couldn't be used in areas where populations of red and greys overlap as it would also affect the fertility of the red squirrels.

It seems completely illogical to be developing a vaccine for gray squirrels when they have developed a natural immunity to parapox virus.

Surely we should be getting our scientists looking at ways to develop the same resistance in reds as our first priority.

Evidence shows that in areas where conservation management has been used, red squirrel populations are now thriving.

Well, local extinction of grey squirrels through cullen to introduce non native, captive red squirrels.

Is that really conservation?

Gray squirrels did not invade Britain of their own accord.

Our ancestors introduced them.

Gray squirrels have no control over the parapox virus that they carry, nor do they intentionally pass it on to the reds.

Grey squirrels are not guilty.

What they have done is become very effective in colonizing areas where reds are no longer present.

Grey squirrels are not predatory to reds.

They simply do what they do, which is to be grey squirrels.

We introduce them without consideration of the consequences.

How can it therefore be right that our only solution is to kill them in their tens of thousands, year after year, decarbote after decade for most of the last century?

Let's be realistic.

Nobody seriously believes that the grey squirrel could be exterminated in the UK.

A report by Stephen Harris and his colleagues at the University of Bristol concluded that culling graves to save reds is neither viable nor economic.

So many overtones of the badger coal in this, isn't there?

It concluded that we could save ourselves a lot of time, money and effort, not persecuting grey squirrels.

No one wants to see the red squirrel become extinct in Britain.

But neither should we accept the culling of gray squirrels in the infinite numbers that we will have to kill them if current plans are to continue in perpetuity.

The methods of killing gray squirrels have been horrific, expensive and totally ineffective.

It's time for us to accept that we will be living with gray squirrels and focus our efforts on helping the red squirrel species to develop immunity from the parapox virus.

That's our in depth look into the persecution of gray squirrels in the UK over the last couple of hundred years.

And it's there are so many similarities to the badger coal.

It's really hard to not draw conclusions that the government just don't follow the advice of the scientists.

What they do follow is the hype that organizations and the media put out, and that still continues today.

So when are we going to learn?

When are we going to leave grey squirrels and our badgers and our foxes and many other of our native mammals alone?

I hope that day will come soon, but I think we're going to have to fight a lot harder for it to happen.

So come on, people, you know what to do.

Get out there and make some noise in defence of our greys.

Coming up next, let's just take a sit back from all the trials and tribulations of the world and enjoy this week's mindful moment.

So how many of you recognize the snuffling noise of a badger going about its nightly business?

How adorable.

I really enjoyed that.

I hope you did, too.

That's we're getting quite near to the end of episode two of the Wildlife Matters podcast.

But on next week's podcast, we're going to be looking into the trail of lies that is trail hunting, and also looking at one of our favorite nocturnal mammals in the very sleepy world of the hedgehog.

I do hope that you'll join me again next week on the Wildlife Matters podcast.

But for now, this is me, Nigel Palmer, wildlife Matters, signing off.