The Grey menace

She was absolutely horrified at the accident and very upset for the helpless wild animal whose life she had just ended.

Commenting in her Facebook page she was surprised to find that not all her friends were entirely sympathetic to the demise of a completely foreign American grey squirrel.

Down where I live here in Dumfriesshire the grey has become a really deadly pest. Our own iconic squirrel nutkins, the red squirrel, has been under increasing threat as the relentless spread of the greys continues into this heartland of the reds.

Drumlanrig Estate, near Thornhill, was one of the strongholds of the reds until the area was recently infiltrated by larger greys carrying the lethal squirrelpox virus. The outcome was the demise of many of the estate’s red squirrels.

The red squirrel (Scriurus vulgaris) has been present in Scotland for thousands of years. It did die out for a while after a severe decline in the 16th and 17th centuries. By the start of the 19th Century, red squirrels were again being re-introduced from England and continental Europe.

Unfortunately, by the 1870s the North American grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) was also a deliberate introduction by landowners to an estate in Cheshire. Other introductions soon followed in England. The first Scottish introduction of greys took place in the early 1890s. Now much of our Central Belt is colonised with the greys.

I have personally seen them in places as far apart as Kinnoull Hill in Perth right down to Culzean in Ayrshire. Sadly for Dumfriesshire and Galloway the advance of the greys is on three fronts and two of these incursions seem to be by squirrelpox infected greys.

“Grey squirrels are now serious threat to our red populations,” one red enthusiast explained. “They are coming in from Cumbria, the Scottish Borders and down the route of the Nith valley from Ayrshire. If they are carrying the lethal squirrelpox virus it’s bad news for any red in the area.

“The greys seem to be immune but the native reds die a horrible death a couple of weeks after infection with the deadly disease. Symptoms of the virus are very similar to myxomatosis in the rabbit populations.”

Fortunately, until now only greys coming from English populations seem to be carrying the virus. That does not mean the threat is any less to our reds.

Pox carrying grey squirrels are called seropositive. Five years ago the first Scottish seropositive grey was found at Newcastleton in 2005. By 2006 they had spread to Langholm and 2007 saw them reach the Lockerbie area. In 2008 a grey was shot near Moniaive but fortunately it proved to be uninfected.

That same year seropositive greys moved onto the Queensberry Estate of the Duke of Buccluech. The result of this was a disaster for this former red stronghold centred on Drumlanrig Castle in Nithsdale.

There was a concerted effort to save the red squirrel spearheaded by Red Alert South West Scotland, a landowner’s organisation and other pressure groups. The Red Squirrels in Southern Scotland (RSSS) project is also now heavily involved in keeping the grey menace in check.

RSSS was set up in August 2000 by two local squirrel groups who joined forces under the Southern Uplands Partnership. Over the past decade they have been at the forefront of red squirrel conservation in southern Scotland. They work in conjunction with several private and public organisations to help raise the profile of red squirrels throughout their working area.

The RSSS project has two red squirrel conservation officers. During the last decade, the project has built up a useful contact network of local squirrel enthusiasts, countryside agencies, communities and farmers. One officer is based in the Borders and another in Dumfries and Galloway. All these people have one common aim - to conserve our native stock of red squirrels.

“If grey squirrel populations from the Scottish Central Belt and Northern England were ever to link up it could prove catastrophic for Scotland’s red squirrels,” one expert explained.

“Southern seropositive greys could easily carry their squirrelpox to the northern grey population. That would be extremely bad news as many new areas of Scottish red squirrel habitat would be increasingly under attack.“Infected reds have a lingering death and usually die over a two week period. They get ulcers, lesions, scabs and swelling. Eventually, they become very lethargic as the deadly disease runs its course. Creating a virus free sector in southern Scotland is now our prime objective.”

Full-time grey squirrel control officers are now employed in that key zone by SNH and Forestry Commission (Scotland). The Scottish Wildlife Trust is also funding seasonal trappers on a part time basis. The RSSS offer a free trap loan scheme for areas where there have be recent grey sightings The Scottish Rural Development Programme is also offering trapping grants for specific control areas.

To qualify you must be in one of the designated control areas or have a stand of woodland seen as priority habitat.

You can either apply for a control or woodland grant but not both. Farmers in the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway are at the forefront in this struggle to save such an iconic animal.

Their vigilance could help hold the unwanted greys in check.