Posted on 02/10/2009 5:56:55 AM PST by Abathar
LONDON (AFP) – They may be cute and cuddly but that won't be enough to save grey squirrels in northern Scotland after the launch on Monday of Britain's largest ever culling campaign of a mammal.
Naturalists and landowners are joining forces to rid northern Scotland of the squirrels, arguing they carry a deadly pox virus and threaten the smaller native red squirrel.
Scotland is one of the few safe havens left for the red squirrel whose numbers have been in slow decline throughout Britain since the arrival of its stronger, disease-carrying cousin from North America in the 1870s.
"The red squirrel is the UK's only native squirrel but it is in danger of becoming extinct on mainland Scotland if action is not taken to protect it," said Mel Tonkin, manager of the Saving Scotland's Red Squirrels campaign.
"Our project aims to stop the decline of Scotland's red squirrels and help them expand across the country in the future, but we have a huge task ahead of us."
Estimates put the number of red squirrels in Scotland at around 120,000 and the number of greys at between 200,000 and 300,000.
Tens of thousands of greys are expected to be trapped and killed under the three-year, £1.3 million campaign sponsored by the Scottish government, the Guardian said.
Landowners will legally be allowed to shoot the grey animals as part of the culling set to start this spring, the newspaper said.
The culling has sparked alarm from some animal lovers. But Stuart Brooks, director of conservation at the Scottish Wildlife Trust, insisted the campaign was essential.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
With what?
From all the stories lately coming out of there I am surprised they will let them have anything more deadly than a slingshot.
Pellet guns? Air guns?
Oh, dear. Don’t let Ashley Judd find out about this! /s
"COME TO PAPA, SCOTTY"
‘With what?
From all the stories lately coming out of there I am surprised they will let them have anything more deadly than a slingshot.’
I can’t speak for anyone else here in Britain, but I’d probably use one of my shotguns or my old .303 SMLE Mk4.
Squirrel lunches? No thanks, I had a late breakfast.
Squirrel, yumm!
It was tongue in cheek, I knew you were still allowed those but the way things are going it seems even those will be banned if you listen what the news prints.
My understanding is that squirrel goes well with eggs, bacon, spam, eggs, spam, spam, spam...
I bought a Model 4 SMLE at a gun show years ago. I can't get through a 20-round box of cartridges without a good shoulder bruise from the solid brass buttplate.
How exactly did Tommies cope with it? 20 rounds per minute - yikes!
This is really funny, up here in the Colorado Rockies we have an invasion of grey squirrels , who, by the way, are decimating our native pine squirrels and Abert squirrels. They are the ones with the tufted ears and black fur, smaller than the greys. Everyone knows that these “invaders” were brought to America from Europe, not the other way around. The truth is, our native species are losing out to the big guys, it is happening to our mountain bluebirds as well, invasion from overseas with many bird species causing so much destruction. The only way to stop these creatures is culling, period.
I almost shot water out of my nose when I saw that. LOL!
Whoa! Thats a bit over the top. There’d be no squirrel left....
LOLz!!
Naturalists and landowners are joining forces to rid northern Scotland of the [grey] squirrels, arguing they carry a deadly pox virus and threaten the smaller native red squirrel.
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