Grey expectations
Saving England’s native red squirrel will require harsh measures
It’s official: England is at risk of losing one of its most iconic native species within a generation. In just 25 years, the red squirrel could be extinct, according to Natural England’s latest report.
The villain of this story is well-established: the grey squirrel. This bushy-tailed American import has been traversing our land since the Victorian era. Since they were first brought over, the grey has slowly but surely outcompeted the red for food and habitat. It also spreads the deadly squirrelpox virus to reds, making it a key driver of their catastrophic decline over the last century.
The solution for saving our red squirrels from the greys is clear: large-scale, coordinated suppression of grey squirrels across England
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The solution for saving our red squirrels from the greys is clear: large-scale, coordinated suppression of grey squirrels across England. “Suppression” is, of course, euphemistically deployed so as not to upset anyone. What they mean is a combination of trapping and shooting in order to kill.
It is here that the policymakers start to get twitchy. Low public support for grey squirrel suppression is repeatedly cited as a case for inaction in Natural England’s strategy, believing that the popularity of an invasive species constitutes a reason to let it drive a native one to extinction.
The grey squirrel is liked precisely because it has made itself ubiquitous. It has colonised our parks and our affections simultaneously. In doing so, it has successfully convinced many of us that it was always there. The red squirrel, meanwhile, has been pushed to the most remote corners of our isles, with a child far more likely to encounter Squirrel Nutkin on the pages of a Beatrix Potter story than a nearby tree.
A lot of the general public either don’t know or don’t think about the relationship between the native red and invasive grey. More concerningly, anecdotal evidence has taught me that some people actually think the grey squirrel in their local park is red. This is because grey squirrels often carry a russet tinge to their fur. Without a native red squirrel for comparison, many people had simply assumed what they were seeing in parks and gardens was close enough to count. They thought they already knew the red squirrel, despite having never actually encountered one.
When the genuine article has been absent for generations, the impostor fills not just the ecological niche but the imaginative one too. The grey squirrel has not merely displaced the red from our woodlands. It has displaced it from our idea of what English nature looks like.
The crushing weight of “public acceptability” — or lack thereof — shepherds in a weaker overall approach to the grey squirrel problem. Deemed more palatable by our “nation of animal lovers” than a gun to the head, DEFRA instead prevaricates on alternatives like fertility control — the squirrel pill, if you will — and squirrelpox vaccines.
While the grey squirrel’s famous rivalry with the red is well documented, it is less well known that they also cause enormous damage to our native woodland. Unlike the reds, the greys intensively strip bark from trees and are able to tolerate the higher tannin levels of unripe acorns, hampering the natural regeneration of our beleaguered woodland ecosystems. So being against grey squirrel culling has more consequences for nature than the average member of the public probably realises.
These are precisely the kinds of trade-offs policymakers and the public must be made to grapple with because inaction is itself a choice that has “a high chance of red squirrel extinction across mainland England over the next 25 years”.
Looking busy — producing long lists of alternative policy ideas for the government to dabble with — is pursued at the expense of mass culling that would deliver the outcomes we want to see: fewer grey squirrels and more reds. Natural England has made it clear that the red squirrel cannot wait another twenty-five years for government strategies and squirrel-based R&D. Money needs to be spent on large-scale suppression of the greys.
That is precisely why public attitudes towards culling should be confronted, not placated.
Recognising the need to influence the public, not just inform them. A few years back as part of my MSc in Behavioural Science, I tested if revealing these real trade-offs would actually change public attitudes towards grey squirrel suppression.
People can handle the truth, provided you actually tell them it
My study revealed something that policymakers chronically underestimate: people can handle the truth, provided you actually tell them it. When members of the public are shown what is really at stake – that more grey squirrels mean fewer native red squirrels and real risks to English oak trees – attitudes shift. The problem is not necessarily public squeamishness, it is the assumption that the public cannot tolerate the discomfort.
One assumes this discomfort pales in comparison to the shame of watching the red squirrel disappear from England, consigned to natural history. This is, therefore, not just about environmentalism, it is a matter of national pride and regard for our natural heritage.
Squirrel Nutkin belongs to English woodlands. The grey interloper does not. Those who claim to love English nature must now love it enough to take some unpleasant actions in its defence.
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