11/7/10
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From the book "The Grey Squirrel" by A M Middleton
"Red squirrels appear to have been very numerous throughout the whole
of Great Britain from about 1890 to 1900 (or later in some districts); but
there is no reason to suppose that they had been continually in a state
of abundance in England before that time, and in Scotland we know they were
practically extinct for a time about 1820 - so much so that it seems to
have been necessary to reintroduced them from England to keep the stock
going. But whatever troubles hampered them at the beginning of the last
century; they were certainly at a very high peak in numbers by the end of
it; in many of the Scottish pine forests, and to a lesser extent in England
they became an absolute pest, destroying thousands of young trees.
Then things began to go wrong with them.From 1903 to 1914 epidemic disease
was rife among the squirrel population of southern England; in Hampshire,
for example, large numbers were found dead and dying in 1904 and a great
reduction in their numbers was apparent. The same sort of thing happened
in Devon, Wales, Kent, Wiltshire, Somerset, Gloucester, Norfolk, and southern
Scotland - in fact all over the country - the actual date of the pronounced
decrease varying somewhat in different localities, but nearly always falling
between 1903 and 1916, and generally occurring earlier in the south than
in the north. The result was a widespread decrease in the numbers
of red squirrels throughout the whole country, both where greys had been
introduced and where they had never been heard of, so that by about 1920
they were rarely seen in the southern part of England except in a few favoured
localities, and even then nothing like their former numbers. In the
North of Scotland their decline was not so violent at any one time, although
a marked decrease did occur about 1910-1912; by 1930, however, very few
squirrels were to be seen even in such historic strongholds as the forests
of Speyside. In most parts of Ireland, also, disease was common during
the same period, and violent reductions in the squirrel population were
noted.
Apart from the fact that disease was observed to be the direct cause of
many of the local reductions in numbers, the decrease of red squirrels alike
in areas where the grey squirrels were and were not present leaves little
doubt that the grey can be acquitted of being the main cause of the disappearance
of the red. There is a possibility that the grey may act as a carrier of
some disease to which it is itself immune but which may have fatal effects
on reds in this country; if such were the case one would expect the red
to die out first in districts where the grey was first introduced, and last
in those areas furtherest from the introduction points but some of the earliest
cases of the disease in Devonshire and Hampshire were far from any early
introductions of grey squirrels, while in Lincolnshire and Norfolk, not
so very far from the Woburn centre, the red squirrel survived until a much
later date (about 1914 -1916). In Ireland there were many instances of disease
and reduction in the red squirrel population before the greys had appeared
in the country at all; in the island of Jersey where red squirrels were
introduced in 1885, they decreased in numbers from 1925 onwards, but no
greys have been imported into the Channel Islands at any time.
Other causes to which the decline of the red squirrel has been attributed are the felling of woodlands and the killing of squirrels by man but neither of these have appeared to be sufficiently potent over the whole country to account for the great decrease that has taken place."
Angus
Macmillan
Meikle Boturich
near Balloch
Dunbartonshire
G83 8LX
Tel. 01389 756424
Fax. 01389 756723
Mob. 07836 548665
Website. http://www.grey-squirrel.org.uk
