Update on Endangered San Bernardino Flying Squirrel

Update April 3, 2014: Today the Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of intent to sue the US Fish and Wildlife Service for failing in its obligation to protect the San Bernardino flying squirrel under the Endangered Species Act. Here's wishing the Center for Biological Diversity good luck in this action, and hope that it brings help quickly before we lose this wonderful squirrel forever!

The San Bernardino flying squirrel is a subspecies of the northern flying squirrel. It lives in high conifer forests in the mountains of southern California. Like other flying squirrels, this small nocturnal squirrel uses a membrane that stretches between its wrists and ankles to glide up to 300 feet between trees in search of food.

Unfortunately, the San Bernardino flying squirrel has declined in numbers in recent decades and may be in danger of disappearing altogether. In 2010, the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the federal Fish and Wildlife Service to list the squirrel as an endangered species threatened by global climate change.

It is believed that the species has already disappeared from part of its range, the San Jacinto Mountains, and is now restricted to the higher elevations of the San Bernardino Mountains. And even on those peaks, its territory is gradually shrinking due to the effects of global warming.

The San Bernardino flying squirrel depends on cool, wet old-growth forests with plenty of big trees, fallen logs and large tangles where it can find its primary food, truffle fungus. In recent decades, harmful forest management practices that call for removal of downed trees and snags, and the spread of suburban development, have encroached on this habitat. Now the remaining territory is shrinking as rising temperatures and drought drive the squirrel to higher elevations.

Fortunately, there may be some relief in sight. Earlier this year the Fish and Wildlife Service issued an initial positive decision to protect the San Bernardino flying squirrel under the Endangered Species Act. Although this is not a final decision, it brings the squirrel a step closer to protection. A positive final decision would prevent further development on remaining habitat and could help make a case for additional restrictions on carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.

Squirrel Facts: The San Joaquin Antelope Squirrel

The San Joaquin antelope squirrel, also called the Nelson's Antelope squirrel, inhabits the San Joaquin valley of central California. It is a relatively small ground squirrel, about 8.5-9.5 inches in length, with small ears, short legs and a short tail. The upper part of the body is buff or tan, with a white stripe running down each side. Because of the small size and the stripes, this squirrel is often mistaken for a chipmunk, but unlike chipmunks the San Joaquin antelope squirrel lacks black and white stripes on the face and back.

San Joaquin antelope squirrels are omnivorous. Their prefered foods include vegetation, fungi, seeds, and insects, especially grasshoppers. Green vegetation makes up most of their diet from December through April, when this food is most abundant. During the remainder of the year insects may make up 90 percent of the squirrels' diet. Vegetation and insects are prefered over seeds, probably because they provide greater amounts of water, which is vital in an arid climate. They are diurnal, or active during the day, and usually forage for food in the early morning and the evening, especially in the summer when they will retreat to their burrows during the hottest part of the day. These squirrels are not tolerant of extreme heat, but do very well in colder weather and do not hibernate during the winter.

San Joaquin antelope squirrels live in small groups of about 6-8 individuals. They either dig their own burrows or, perhaps more often, use abandoned burrows of kangaroo rats. They breed once each year, with the births taking place in March or April. Young first leave the nest about 30 days after birth.

Sadly, the San Joaquin antelope squirrel is an endangered species. Its range has been reduced by about 80 percent by agriculture, petroleum development and urban sprawl. In addition, the use of pesticides in commercial agriculture may be reducing the supply of insects, one of the squirrels' most important foods. And some of their most important vegetable foods are being displaced by invasive plant species. Currently the species survives only in two areas of the San Joaquin valley. One of these areas, the Carrizo Natural Area, is protected public land. Nevertheless, this small ground squirrel faces a precarious future unless strong steps are taken to protect and expand its remaining habitat.

Squirrel Facts: The European Ground Squirrel

The European ground squirrel, also called the European souslik, is one of only two species of ground squirrels that inhabit Europe. Its range covers parts of eastern and southeastern Europe, including Poland, southern Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Romania, Austria, Greece, Bulgaria, and Macedonia.

Like most ground squirrel species, European ground squirrels are diurnal (active during the day), and live in colonies made up of individual burrows. Their favored habitat is short-grass steppe, pastures, lawns, or park land. This squirrel is gray or yellow-gray in color, with a body about 8 inches long and the tail slightly over 2 inches.

This species eats a primarily herbivorous diet made up of grasses, roots, and seeds, along with some insects, which they carry in their cheeks to eat in the safety of the den. During foraging, some individuals act as sentinels, alerting the colony to danger with a whistling call. They hibernate from autumn until March, with the exact length of the hibernation varying by location depending on the severity of the winter.

Unfortunately, the European ground squirrel is threatened and has declined or disappeared over much of its range. It was declared extinct in Germany around 1985, and had also completely disappeared in Poland although it has since been reintroduced in that country. The primary reason for its disappearance has been the conversion of its meadow and grassland habitat into cultivated farmland. However, in some areas of Bulgaria and Romania, populations have stabilized or increased since the 1980s as agricultural intensity has reduced with the fall of former communist governments.

The European ground squirrel has been in the news recently in Vienna, Austria, where a colony of the threatened squirrels is delaying the construction of a new apartment complex. Officials in the city are trying to lure the animals away from the site by designing and constructing a new park nearby. The fifteen acre park will include "a wide range of flowers and herbs" that designers hope will induce at least half of the ground squirrels to move voluntarily, after which the remaining squirrels will be persuaded through the use of "light pressure" (what this would involve is not explained).

Of course, one might think that a more obvious solution would be to build the apartments on the site of the planned park, and let the ground squirrels stay where they are.

Why Did The Flying Squirrel Cross The Road?

In 2002, concerned scientists noticed that northern flying squirrels were unable to cross a stretch of scenic highway in the Unicoi Mountains of western North Carolina. This was a problem because the flying squirrels, which are declining in numbers, were unable to access foraging sites and get to others of their species for mating.

The Carolina northern flying squirrel is an endangered species that inhabits mountain forests of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The nocturnal squirrels glide by launching themselves from a tall tree, and can typically cover distances of up to about 80 feet. But the highway, along with an adjacent treeless area on both shoulders, created a space 125 feet wide, too much distance for the squirrels to cover.

Northern Flying Squirrel Gliding

Fortunately, biologists from the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission and North Carolina State University came up with a creative solution to this problem, and it seems to be working. The scientists have installed three pairs of wooden poles about 46 feet high, with launching platforms at the top of each pole. The poles in each pair are situated about 49 feet apart, on each side of the road. This gives the squirrels the means to launch themselves across the highway to find food, den sites, and mates.

A Northern Flying Squirrel at a Bird Feeder

To test whether the flying squirrels were using the platforms, the research team set up cameras at the poles for a 15 month period in 2009 and 2010. During this time, they captured 14 instances of the squirrels using the poles. Here is a video showing one of these instances:





It would be nice if the success of this project could lead to similar efforts in other locations. I have written about the squirrel bridges in the town of Longview, Washington, a very successful example of helping squirrels to avoid the dangers of road crossings. Unfortunately, not every effort has been so successful. In 2010, a proposal to erect rope bridges across two highways in Arizona to help the endangered Mount Graham red squirrel was defeated by that state's legislature, due to protests from right-wing politicians who objected to the cost. Hopefully Arizona's politicians will have a change of heart before it's too late for that threatened species.

Help For the Mount Graham Red Squirrel?

The Mount Graham red squirrel has been listed as an endangered species since 1987, after having previously been thought extinct. It lives a precarious existence in a small area of Arizona, where it numbers only slightly above 200 individuals. Now it appears that a long-planned captive breeding program at the Phoenix Zoo may finally be nearing approval from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

This small subspecies of the North American red squirrel lives in high-elevations conifer forests in the Pinaleno Mountains of Arizona, where it has been isolated from other red squirrels for over ten thousand years. Its numbers have declined due to habitat loss, drought and forest fires. In the 1990s this squirrel became controversial when conservation groups objected to the construction of a University of Arizona observatory in its territory, and since the construction the numbers of squirrels have been closely monitored.

The Phoenix Zoo captured four of the squirrels, two males and two females, in 2011 when it feared that wildfires that summer might devastate the remaining population. The two females died, but the males remain in captivity at the zoo. Zoo researchers have been learning everything that they can about these squirrels in the hopes of starting a captive breeding program to replenish the numbers, which are currently so low that the species could be exterminated by a single ecological disaster such as a forest fire or severe drought.

One of the captive male Mount Graham red squirrels

There are difficulties with any effort to breed Mount Graham red squirrels in captivity. The squirrels are extremely territorial, and will not tolerate the presence of other squirrels in their vicinity except for mating. The females of the species go into heat for only one day a year, so the timing has to be perfect. The zoo researchers are developing a guide for keeping the squirrels in captivity, which is being updated as they learn more.

The proposed pilot program calls for capturing a maximum of sixteen Mount Graham red squirrels over a period of ten years for captive breeding. After that ten years, a decision would be made based on results, on whether to launch a full breeding program. The Fish and Wildlife Service may approve the pilot program as early as this spring, although further delays are also possible.

The real question, of course, is whether the species can survive long enough to see the implementation of the program.

Squirrel Facts: The Black Tailed Prairie Dog Needs Help

I have written about the black-tailed prairie dog before on this blog. Yesterday I created a petition on the Care2.com website to try to help this species by banning the use of two horrible poisons. Although I understand that the chances of success are slim, I want to do my part to raise awareness of the cruelties that are being inflicted on these animals. I am asking that you sign the petition and help spread the word.

This large ground squirrel of the grassy prairie and plains regions of North America lives in large colonies that can number in the hundreds or even thousands. Within their "towns" prairie dogs live in extended family groups or "coteries" consisting of several related females, their first-year young, and one or two males. Members of the coterie engage in mutual grooming, greet each other with "kisses" and hugs, and cooperate in activities such as caring for young and watching for and alerting others of potential danger.

Black-tailed prairie dogs live in burrows which can be amazingly complex. Each burrow may have multiple entrances, increasing the chance for escape from predators. The tunnels, marked by entrances ringed with a mound of dirt to help keep out water, may be up to five meters deep and 30 meters long. A burrow will usually be used by several generations of prairie dogs, and when abandoned may be taken over by other animals.

Unfortunately, the black-tailed prairie dog has been unfairly demonized by cattle ranchers and land developers. Ranchers believed, incorrectly, that the prairie dogs were taking food that was needed by their herds of cattle. This belief, which persists to this day, has let to the mass extermination of prairie dogs from their range. Today, after more than a century of slaughter by shooting and poisoning, the black-tailed prairie dog occupies less than two percent of its former range. Now, in addition to ranchers, new enemies including suburban land developers and even many city and town governments are carrying out a war of extermination against this sociable, intelligent ground squirrel.

The ranchers' war against the black-tailed prairie dog is based on a myth. The fact is, prairie dogs coexisted on the plains and prairies with massive herds of bison for thousands of years before cattle ranching took over the region. Bison and cattle require a very similar diet, and the prairie dog actually provides a benefit to the growth of the grasses that they eat. Their tunneling activity churns and mixes the soil and organic matter, and helps with water retention in the soil. Overgrazing by cattle does considerably more damage to the land than the presence of prairie dogs, and the activity of the prairie dogs may actually help to repair some of the damage done by the cattle.

Prairie dogs are also a vital component of the natural plains and prairie ecosystems. Ecologists refer to the black-tailed prairie dog as a "keystone" species. This is because a large number of other species are dependent on the prairie dog. They provide food for many predators including the American badger, bobcat, coyote, snakes, weasels, bald and golden eagles, hawks, and the critically endangered black-footed ferret, which has been driven to the brink of extinction by the extermination of the black-tailed prairie dog from its range. Many other animals, including snakes and burrowing owls, use abandoned prairie dog burrows for their homes. In all, at least 140 other species benefit from the presence of prairie dogs in their ranges.

Among the most lethal weapons in the arsenal of the enemies of the prairie dog are two poisons, Rozol (chlorophacinone) and Kaput-D (diphacinone). These two products have been approved by the EPA for use in ten states, in spite of the utter cruelty that they inflict on their victims and the widespread harm that they do to the environment.

These chemicals are blood thinners. When a prairie dog or other animal eats the poison, it experiences a slow, painful decline and death by internal bleeding that may take several weeks. During that time the prairie dog becomes weak and disoriented, making it easier prey for carnivores. After death the poison will remain in the carcass. Any animals that eats the meat will also consume the poison.

Several years ago the Environmental Protection Agency considered and rejected listing the black-tailed prairie dog as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. It has also given approval to the use of these two cruel, dangerous poisons. I believe that the EPA is negligent in carrying out its intended mission. I hope that you will help by signing the petition and take a stand for the prairie dogs.

If you would like more information on black-tailed prairie dogs and the threats that they are facing, you can read more here for general black-tailed prairie dog info, and here for more on the effects of Rozol and Kaput-D.

Please Help Prairie Dogs

I have just created a petition on the Care2 web site asking the EPA to ban the use of two deadly poisons, Rozol and Kaput-D, for killing prairie dogs. Currently these two loathsome products are approved for use in ten states. I plan to write a longer post on the plight of the black-tailed prairie dog tomorrow, when I am less tired. For now, I'm asking that you click on the link and sign this petition to help these awesome, intelligent and sociable ground squirrels.

Squirrel Facts: The Endangered Woolly Flying Squirrel

The woolly flying squirrel is one of the rarest and most endangered squirrels in the world. It had not been seen by westerners since 1924, and was believed to be extinct before it was rediscovered in the summer of 1994 by an American zoologist working in a remote valley of Kashmir in the far north of Pakistan.

A few years later, in 2004, Vladimir Dinets videotaped a woolly flying squirrel at night near Nanga Parbat, Pakistan. Here are a couple of still shots of the squirrel:

Very little has been documented about the woolly flying squirrel's life and habits. It is the largest species of flying squirrel. Its body is two feet long, and the tail an additional two feet. Nevertheless, it is able to glide gracefully among the cliffs, rocks, and trees of its mountain habitat. It has a bushy tail and long, thick fur that gives it a "woolly" appearance. It feeds on pine needles and other abrasive plant material. It lives in high-elevation pine forests in the Himalaya mountain region, generally near cliffs, caves, and rocky crevices in which this nocturnal squirrel takes shelter during the day.

The survival of this squirrel was in doubt among western scientists for decades, due to the remoteness of its habitat. However, residents of the northern Pakistan region where it lives have a number of interesting beliefs concerning the woolly flying squirrel. Its urine is said to be a powerful aphrodisiac. And the cry of this squirrel is believed by some to signal the impending death of a loved one.

Like many other critically endangered animals, this mysterious and elusive squirrel faces an uncertain future. Habitat loss and global warming will certainly threaten its survival well into the future. We can only hope that something can be done to save this fascinating creature.

Squirrel Facts: The Endangered Delmarva Fox Squirrel

The Delmarva fox squirrel is an endangered subspecies of the fox squirrel of North America. Historically, this large tree squirrel inhabited southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, southern New Jersey, Maryland, and the Virginia portion of the Delmarva peninsula (Delmarva refers to the states of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia). Due to habitat loss resulting from logging, agriculture, and urban development, its range has been reduced to parts of the eastern shore of Maryland, one county in Delaware, and the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia.

The Delmarva fox squirrel is similar in color and appearance to the eastern gray squirrel, but is larger and heavier. It is approximately 30 inches long, including its 15 inch tail, and weighs around three pounds. Its body and tail are a frosty silver-gray, with a white belly. Its most noticeable feature is its unusually full, fluffy tail.

Compared to the eastern gray squirrel, the Delmarva fox squirrel is quiet and shy, and somewhat less active than its smaller cousin. These squirrels inhabit mixed forests of conifer and broadleaf trees with open understory, feeding on nuts from oak, hickory, walnut, sweetgum, and loblolly pine trees. In the summer and early fall they like to eat pine cones, and in the spring, tree buds and flowers, fungi, insects, fruit, and seeds.

Like other tree squirrels, Delmarva fox squirrels make their nests either in cavities in trees, or construct a drey from twigs and leaves in the tree branches.

In 1967, the Delmarva fox squirrel was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. At the time, it inhabited only 10 percent of its former range. Since then, there has been some success made in restoring habitat, and some squirrels have been relocated to parts of the former range. However, the species is still under serious threat from continuing development of its habitat. Global warming presents an additional threat, as some parts of the coastal territory are predicted to be inundated by rising sea levels within the next fifty years.

The Endangered Black-Footed Ferret

The black footed ferret is a member of the mustelid, or weasel, family. Although it is obviously not a squirrel, its survival depends on the survival of a ground squirrel, specifically the prairie dog. Up to 90 percent of this ferret's diet consists of prairie dogs. As farmers and ranchers exterminated the prairie dog from most of its native range during the twentieth century, the black-footed ferret was driven to the brink of extinction. With conservation efforts now underway, it is only just beginning to show signs of recovery.

Historically, the black-footed ferret could be found from southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, south to Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, a range that correlated closely with that of the black-tailed, white-tailed, and Gunnison's prairie dogs. The ferrets are 18-24 inches long, including the six-inch tail, and weigh about two and a half pounds. They are territorial, and solitary except when mating and raising young. They are nocturnal, hunting at night for sleeping prairie dogs which they take from the burrows. In addition to eating prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets are one of several species that make their homes and raise their young in abandoned prairie dog burrows.

The nationwide effort to eradicate prairie dogs from farm and ranch land, which started in the early 1900s, was devastating not only to the prairie dog but also to the black-footed ferret. By the 1970s, the ferret was widely believed to be extinct. In 1981 a wild population was discovered on a private ranch in Meeteetse, Wyoming, and a subsequent search for survivors by the US Fish and Wildlife Service found around 100 ferrets. When an outbreak of disease reduced this population to only 18 individuals, the remaining ferrets were trapped for captive breeding.

Since then, breeding and reintroduction efforts have had some success. As of 2007 there were estimated to be around 650 black-footed ferrets living in the wild. Populations have been introduced in several states, including Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah, as well as Saskatchewan in Canada and Chihuahua, Mexico.

However, in order for the black-footed ferret to survive in the long term, it is vital that the populations of prairie dogs on which they depend also be protected. One way that you can help is by signing this petition asking the state of South Dakota not to poison prairie dogs. The practice of poisoning prairie dogs is especially destructive because when ferrets eat the poisoned animals, they are, of course, eating the powerful poison as well.

The relationship between the black-footed ferret and the prairie dog is just one powerful example of how the removal of one species can affect others, and how easily an ecosystem like the plains/prairie system can be damaged by short-sighted actions like waging war against a species.

Squirrel Facts: The Endangered Mount Graham Red Squirrel

Today I am featuring another endangered squirrel. The Mount Graham red squirrel is a subspecies of the North American red squirrel. It lives only in the Pinaleno Mountains of southeastern Arizona, where it has been isolated from other red squirrels since the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago. It was believed in the 1950s that this squirrel had become extinct, but it was rediscovered in the 1970s, and was given endangered status under the Endangered Species Act in 1987.

Physically, the Mount Graham red squirrel is smaller than most North American red squirrels. It weighs only 8 ounces, and measures 8 inches in length, with a tail 6 inches long. It's tail lacks the white fringe that is displayed by most red squirrels. It inhabits cool, moist spruce-fir and mixed conifer forests at the higher elevations in the Pinaleno Mountains, where it eats mostly seeds, conifer cones, and fungi.

The Mount Graham red squirrel has been devastated by habitat loss, drought, and forest fires. It has been estimated that from 2001-2009 the population dropped from around 350 to around 250 individuals.

This species has been involved in controversy due to the construction of the University of Arizona's Mount Graham International Observatory within its range. The observatory was built in the early 1990s, and with additional construction projects planned, continues to come under fire from conservation groups for its impact on the squirrels' habitat.

The Mount Graham red squirrel also made the news in 2010 when the Arizona Department of Transportation announced plans to spend $1.25 million on conservation measures to reduce mortality of the squirrels due to cars. Unfortunately the plan, which included the construction of rope bridges across two highways that pass through the squirrels' range as well as additional monitoring of the squirrels' numbers, was met with loud protests from right-wing politicians and pundits and was subsequently canceled.

This tiny but unique squirrel clearly faces an uphill battle for survival. Fortunately, the Mount Graham Red Squirrel does have some friends. There is a group, the Mount Graham Coalition, that is dedicated to preserving the area's ecosystem and species, including the red squirrels.

Squirrel Facts: The Endangered Vancouver Island Marmot

Marmots are a group of large ground squirrels. There are fourteen species of marmot, most of which live in mountainous habitats of North America, Europe, and Asia.

The Vancouver Island marmot is notable because it is the rarest of the marmots, and is considered one of the most critically endangered species of North America. It is found in high, south- or southwest-facing alpine meadows of Vancouver island, at an altitude of over 1000 meters. Over the past few decades, the species has disappeared completely from about two-thirds of its former range, and aggressive conservation efforts are underway to ensure the survival of the species.

This species of marmot is quite unique in appearance. It has a thick, rich chestnut-brown coat with a creamy white patch around the nose and down to the throat. Usually there is a mottled white streak along the chest and belly. The tail is somewhat bushy. The Vancouver Island marmot is similar in size to a medium to large housecat, weighing up to about fifteen pounds, although its weight may vary considerably by season due to hibernation.

Vancouver Island marmots live in colonies made up of one or more families. Families consist usually of one adult male, one or two adult females, and the offspring of those females born during that year. The colony lives in a complex network of underground burrows. These marmots hibernate from late September to early May. During hibernation the entrances to the burrows are sealed with plugs made of mud and grass. Mating occurs in spring and litters, usually born in July, consist of about three pups.

Vancouver Island marmots are herbivores, and are known to eat around fifty different kinds of plants, usually focusing on grasses in spring and other plants later in summer and early fall.

Even in the best of times, the required habitat for the Vancouver Island marmot is rare. In recent decades, declines have been accelerated by habitat disruption due to logging, development of some habitat areas for ski resorts, increases in the population of wolves, and weather fluctuations likely due to global warming. By 1997 the species had become so rare that wildlife managers began to capture some individuals for captive breeding in zoos, with the goal of releasing offspring back into the wild. In 2003 a census found only 21 individuals surviving in the wild. However, since that time over 300 marmots have been rereleased, and in 2010 a survey estimated about 250-300 individuals surviving. More releases are planned for the future in the hope of building up the numbers.

There is an organization, the Vancouver Island Marmot Recovery Foundation, that is dedicated to the recovery of the marmot population in the wild. You can learn more about their efforts or donate at their web site.

Squirrel Facts: Saving the San Bernardino Flying Squirrel

Update April 3, 2014: Today the Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of intent to sue the US Fish and Wildlife Service for failing in its obligation to protect the San Bernardino flying squirrel under the Endangered Species Act. Here's wishing the Center for Biological Diversity good luck in this action, and hope that it brings help quickly before we lose this wonderful squirrel forever!

The San Bernardino flying squirrel is a subspecies of the northern flying squirrel. It lives in high conifer forests in the mountains of southern California. Like other flying squirrels, this small nocturnal squirrel uses a membrane that stretches between its wrists and ankles to glide up to 300 feet between trees in search of food.

Unfortunately, the San Bernardino flying squirrel has declined in numbers in recent decades and may be in danger of disappearing altogether. In 2010, the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the federal Fish and Wildlife Service to list the squirrel as an endangered species threatened by global climate change.

It is believed that the species has already disappeared from part of its range, the San Jacinto Mountains, and is now restricted to the higher elevations of the San Bernardino Mountains. And even on those peaks, its territory is gradually shrinking due to the effects of global warming.

The San Bernardino flying squirrel depends on cool, wet old-growth forests with plenty of big trees, fallen logs and large tangles where it can find its primary food, truffle fungus. In recent decades, harmful forest management practices that call for removal of downed trees and snags, and the spread of suburban development, have encroached on this habitat. Now the remaining territory is shrinking as rising temperatures and drought drive the squirrel to higher elevations.

Fortunately, there may be some relief in sight. Earlier this year the Fish and Wildlife Service issued an initial positive decision to protect the San Bernardino flying squirrel under the Endangered Species Act. Although this is not a final decision, it brings the squirrel a step closer to protection. A positive final decision would prevent further development on remaining habitat and could help make a case for additional restrictions on carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.

Red vs. Grey in Britain: A Tragic Conflict

For years Great Britain has been the scene of a tragic conflict between two related but incompatible species: the North American eastern gray squirrel (or simply the grey squirrel, as it is known in England); and the red squirrel of Europe. The gray squirrel was introduced to England about a century ago, and in the years since has spread throughout all of England and Wales and into Scotland.

And wherever the gray squirrel has proliferated, the red has been the victim. The gray squirrel is bigger than the red, eats more, and apparently out-competes the red squirrel for available resources. To make matters worse, the gray squirrel carries a virus called squirrel parapox (or just squirrel pox) that does it no harm at all, but is deadly to Eurasian red squirrels. As a result, England has lost almost its entire population of red squirrels. Scotland, where reds are still plentiful in some areas, is now waging a war to drive back the spread of the gray squirrels.

Unfortunately, this war involves some tactics that, however well intentioned, are to say the least unpleasant to anyone who cares about animals. For the past three years, the Saving Scotland's Red Squirrels (SSRS) project has been conducting a cull of gray squirrels, funded by government grants and carried out by a team of "control officers" aided by sympathetic landowners. The cull involves trapping gray squirrels, and then dispatching them with either a gunshot or a blow to the head. So far the group has killed 7,483 gray squirrels, at a cost of a little more than 460 thousand pounds (that's more than 700 thousand dollars). Just today, SSRS announced that funding for the project has been renewed for at least two more years.

According to SSRS, the project has been a success, having stabilized and in some areas increased the number of red squirrels, while reducing the gray squirrel population. However, even proponents of the project say that the cull must continue indefinitely or the gains will be reversed, which means unending carnage inflicted on gray squirrels who share none of the blame for their presence in the British Isles.

Which leads to a point that bothers me as much as anything involved in this issue. If you take a look at how the English media covers this subject, there is an unsettling tendency to demonize the gray squirrel, as if the species had somehow made a deliberate decision to come to England and wage war on their red cousins.

For example, a headline on the website of The Telegraph declared today, "Grey squirrels blamed for decline in woodland birds." The story quotes an official with a conservation group as saying that the gray squirrels have a "case to answer" for causing population declines among some songbirds by eating the birds' eggs and nestlings. Really? A case to answer? Are the gray squirrels being put on trial? Predictably, the group that funded the research cited in this article is calling for culling of gray squirrels, despite the fact that the findings are far from conclusive and, as the article makes clear, many other factors are involved in the bird population decline.

What has happened to the red squirrel in Great Britain is an ecological tragedy and one of the best lessons on the unforeseen consequences that can result from introducing an invasive species to a new area. It is very easy for me to understand the feelings of those who, having witnessed the decline and disappearance of the red squirrels that they grew up with, want to rid the British Isles of the gray squirrel. But at the same time, the thought of slaughtering thousands upon thousands of unwitting gray squirrels, that are many generations removed from the squirrels that were brought to England years ago, with no end to the carnage in sight, makes me feel sick inside.

As an American, I'm not trying to advocate for a position on this complicated issue, which has to be resolved by the citizens of the UK. My honest personal opinion is that the culling of gray squirrels should be halted, that the process of natural selection should be allowed to run its course, and hopefully the red squirrels will over time develop a natural resistance to squirrel pox and eventually make a comeback.

Whatever approach is taken, I do wish that the British media would make it more clear to readers that this situation was caused not by squirrels, but by humans who deliberately brought gray squirrels to England because they found them "cute" and "charming."

Red and Gray Squirrels in Scotland, A Moral Dilemma

I posted a poll on the right side of this page. The reason for the poll is an article that I read this morning from the Scotsman. As the article points out, most of the last surviving red squirrels in Great Britain are in Scotland. The species has been devastated since the introduction, around a century ago, of eastern gray squirrels from North America. Not only are the gray squirrels larger, out-competing the red squirrels for food and habitat, but the grays also carry a disease called squirrel pox that, while harmless to the gray squirrels, is deadly to red squirrels.

This article discusses a measure to attempt to save red squirrels in Scotland that I consider a huge moral dilemma: trapping and killing of thousands of gray squirrels, to try to eradicate them from areas to which the red squirrel is native.

My initial reaction is to be horrified at this measure. After all, the gray squirrels did not ask to be taken to Great Britain, or to be carriers of a disease. I feel pretty sure that no gray squirrel has ever deliberately harmed a red squirrel. The fact that I have a gray squirrel companion that I see, pet, and play with every day makes me biased, of course, but I think the very idea of wastefully killing thousands of individuals of any species would bother me.

On the other hand, I have to consider the plight of the red squirrels. While still plentiful in other parts of Europe, the species is seriously endangered in Great Britain. The suffering of these squirrels from squirrel pox must be truly terrible. And I can understand the feelings of English and Scottish residents who have watched the decline of one of their native species. I can't imagine how terrible it would be to watch the eastern gray squirrel, so plentiful in my part of the world, decline and die out.

Please take the poll on this blog. It simply asks the question, do you think the killing of gray squirrels in Scotland is justified, to save the red squirrel population? And please also leave a comment on this post if you want to. This is certainly not the only case in which an invasive species has caused the decline of a native species, and it is an issue that has always troubled me... how far should humans be able to go to manipulate the environment, and is the killing of one species to save another permissible?

Squirrel Facts: The Eurasian Red Squirrel

The red squirrel is found in both coniferous and temperate broadleaf forests throughout Europe and northern Asia. This is a completely separate species from the North American red squirrel that is found in Canada and the northern United States.

The red squirrel is somewhat smaller than the eastern gray squirrel. It is reddish in color, although the shade differs depending on region and season. It has a creamy white underbelly, and, the most distinctive feature, ear tufts, which are usually most pronounced in winter. The diet consists mostly of seeds of coniferous trees, nuts, fungi, berries, tree sap, and occasionally birds' eggs. The red squirrel will build a drey similar to the eastern gray squirrel, or may nest in tree cavities such as abandoned woodpecker nests.

In most parts of its range the red squirrel is abundant. However, tragically, in England the introduction of the larger and stronger eastern gray squirrel from North America, sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century, has pushed the red squirrel out of most of its range. This is not due to aggression by the eastern gray, as the two species are not known to be antagonistic, but is because of several factors including the conflict over available food resources, greater adaptability and breeding success of the eastern gray squirrel, and, most troubling, a disease called squirrel pox which eastern grays carry but are immune to, but which is fatal to the red squirrel. Apart from the spread of the eastern gray squirrel, the red squirrel population has also been affected by fragmentation and reduction of its native forest habitat.

Wild populations of red squirrels in the United Kingdom are now found primarily in Scotland. Efforts are underway to protect and conserve the remaining populations of red squirrels. More information about these efforts, and how you can help, can be found here.