By virtue of their much larger size, they can also out-compete the reds for food in areas where they still co-exist. British children grew up reading Beatrix Potter books featuring red squirrels as characters, and Prince Charles has taken a personal interest in the preservation efforts. The heir to the British throne is the patron of the Red Squirrel Survival Trust, and his son William has been quoted as saying Charles has given individual squirrels names and even allowed them inside the Royal Family's homes on his country estates.
Right now, the three million grey squirrels in the country outnumber the reds by roughly 25 to 1. The Red Squirrel Survival Trust says the latter may become extinct in a decade if more is not done to halt the proliferation of the grey squirrel.
It's a hazelnut paste that can be mixed with an immunocontraceptive, rendering it impossible for squirrels that eat it to breed. She says it only took three of the special feeders left out for four days to deliver the mixture to 70 per cent of a local population of squirrels in the Yorkshire region, which would be more than enough to cause a dramatic reduction in births.
The method of injecting birth control directly into captured wild animals has been effective on a localized scale at reducing populations of other species, such as deer. But in this case, the contraceptive can be delivered to much larger wildlife populations with minimal human involvement.
The contraceptive vaccine being tested in the woods of Yorkshire prompts the squirrel's immune system to produce antibodies against a hormone called GnRH, which is essential for reproduction in males and females. Animals remain in a non-reproductive state as long as a sufficient concentration of antibodies is present, according to the U. Squirrel Accord , the conservation group sponsoring the five-year project, which is in its third year.
No side-effects were observed in the first trials of the immunocontraceptive, according to the U. Squirrel Accord. Description: bushy tail; ear tufts; coat colour in adults can vary from cream, through all shades of red and brown to black. Ear tufts and tail may bleach to cream in summer. Size: head and body up to 24 cm, tail up to 20 cm, weight up to g. Food: seeds of a wide variety of trees, buds, shoots, flowers, berries, nuts, bark and fungi.
Population: , in Scotland, in Wales and 15, in England. Territory: the favourite habitat of the red squirrel is a large, mature Scots pine wood but they will also live in deciduous woodlands. The squirrels live mostly high up in the trees and build nests, dreys, in the forks of branches. Males may live in an area of up to 17 hectares the size of 34 football pitches.
In the winter and early spring squirrels of all ages and both males and females may share dreys but only if their territories overlap and they feed close together i. Drey sharing usually stops in late spring and summer when the females are raising their young. Daily Life: red squirrels are diurnal and are active for much of the day, often from before dawn until it is dark, pausing only for a midday rest. They have few natural predators so can take the risk of being out in broad daylight.
They escape attack from foxes and birds of prey by spending most of their time up in the trees. They forage on the ground for brief spells, particularly in autumn when they collect acorns, beech masts and other nuts to store for winter. Squirrels hold food in their forepaws. A favourite food is pine cones; they bite the scales off the cones to get at the seeds. The ground under a pine tree may be littered with chewed cones and scales.
You can buy specially formulated Squirrel Food and Squirrel Feeders from Wildlife World which prove very popular with squirrels!
When squirrels are not feeding or resting, they are scratching they are usually covered in fleas! Winter: during the autumn red squirrels eat as much as they can to put on fat reserves for winter. They put on about 12 per cent of their body weight in autumn fat whereas a grey squirrel can put on as much as 25 per cent. Breeding: the mating season often starts on warm days in January, the squirrels chasing each other through the branches.
The female red squirrel may produce two litters in a good year, one in the spring April and the other in summer August. There are, on average, three babies in a litter. The breeding drey is usually a little larger than normal with a thick, soft, grassy lining.
The young are born blind and naked. If she is disturbed, she will carry the babies in her mouth, one by one, to another nest, which is sometimes quite a distance away. As the young develop, the female spends more and more time away from the drey, and by the time they are three weeks old she may leave them for several hours at a time.
The male takes no part in rearing the young. At seven weeks the young begin to venture away from the nest and at eight to ten weeks they are weaned and become independent. Their fluffy, darker baby coats change into the adult colour. The success of the breeding season i. Where there are plenty of acorns, pine cones etc. This means they will start breeding early in the next year and rear many babies. In a year when there is a shortage of tree seeds, the squirrels do not put on much fat and they may die from starvation or disease during the winter.
Most of the survivors are not fit enough to breed successfully. A lot more information about red squirrels will have to be gained through careful observation in the wild. In this way we may be able to decide exactly why they have declined so dramatically and work out ways in which we can help them recover. One way may be to provide extra food rations to help them over bad winters.
Another way, as with the otter, may be to breed them in captivity and re-introduce some into protected, suitable habitats.
In January two new breeding enclosures for the red squirrel were opened in Norfolk. These two sites brings the number of breeding areas up to 10 in a bid to increase red squirrel populations.
These controlled areas allow squirrels to be secluded from the threat of grey squirrels and other predators. Scotland and Ireland are where the red squirrel now has its main strongholds. In England, red squirrels only survive on the Isle of Wight and Brownsea Island, where there are no greys, on the Formby coast, and in the extensive pine forests of Northumberland and the Lake District. Red Squirrels are most often found in coniferous woods, feasting on hazelnuts by cracking the shell in half.
You may also find pine cones that have been nibbled, leaving what looks like an apple core behind. Squirrels make a rough nest, called a 'drey', of twigs, leaves and strips of bark in the fork of a branch, high in the tree canopy.
Like most wild animals, red squirrels tend to be shy of people, so keep as quiet as you can. A good first place to look is on bird feeders! Red squirrels are just as keen on peanuts as their grey cousins, and they may come to feeders if they are around.
Visit the project websites to find out more about this endearing threatened native.
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