"Many Photos" - Conservationist ROBIN PAGE reveals his plan to save the red squirrels

Robin Page is pictured above at a Red Squirrel breeding operation. He chairs the Countryside Restoration Trust (CRT) which has started breeding red squirrels in Norfolk with the East Anglian Red Squirrel Group

When Beatrix Potter sat down in the Lake District to write The Tale Of Squirrel Nutkin, the countryside was teeming with wildlife, not least the native red squirrels she saw at every turn.

How things have changed since the children’s classic was first published in 1903. 

Today, the number of red squirrels in England and Wales has fallen to between 12,000 and 16,000, and the population in Britain as a whole is down to 120,000 and shrinking fast. 

Even in Scotland, once a stronghold, the red squirrel is in trouble.

The cause is simple: the reds are being killed by deadly competition from marauding greys, an alien species imported from the United States.

And the solutions are simple, too: we must remove the destructive invaders and introduce a nationwide captive breeding programme to save our native red squirrels, which now face the prospect of extinction.

Weighing 1½ lb, grey squirrels are twice as big as their ‘cousins’ and much more aggressive. 

Many carry squirrel pox, properly known as squirrel parapoxvirus, a disease which – while almost harmless to greys – is fatal to reds.

Not that it’s the grey squirrels’ fault, of course. They were brought to Britain in the 1800s as exotic curiosities for wealthy landowners. 

Neither is it their fault that they like it here in Britain, where they have bred almost as successfully as rabbits.

Today, the number of red squirrels in England and Wales has fallen to between 12,000 and 16,000, and the population in Britain as a whole is down to 120,000 and shrinking fast. Even in Scotland, once a stronghold, the red squirrel is in trouble [File photo]

It has been estimated that in ten years, the population of greys has doubled from three to six million, and the result is that our native red squirrels have been driven to the margins of the country and to islands including Anglesey, the Isle of Wight and Brownsea Island, off the Dorset coast, where the greys cannot reach.

Red squirrels are not the only victims. The American imports plunder the nests of wild birds for their eggs and young. 

At a conservative estimate, a single grey squirrel could eat the contents of ten nests, each containing four eggs – or chicks – every year, a scale of destruction that could amount to the loss of a staggering 240 million potential birds, from blue tits to spotted flycatchers.

Grey squirrels also do permanent damage to our woodlands and gardens with their razor-sharp teeth, unlike the reds.

Our response must be direct. We must control the population of grey squirrels, particularly in those parts of the countryside where our remaining native squirrels are threatened. And that, in plain terms, means killing them.

Red squirrels are already supposedly protected by numerous Government departments and quangos, but official efforts at controlling greys are half-hearted and lack co-ordination.

I understand why people are concerned that killing grey squirrels might seem a waste of life, but they can at least be eaten. Grey squirrel is delicious, with a tender white meat, whatever the vegan faddists might think [File photo]

For example, the existing scheme of subsidies for farmers should be changed so that they are rewarded not for merely ‘trying’ to control grey squirrels, but for keeping their land ‘clear’ of greys.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Natural England, the National Parks, the Forestry Commission and some of our large charities such as the National Trust and the RSPB all have responsibility for protecting the red squirrel but, in my view, they are concerned about avoiding possible criticism from animal-rights lobbyists concerned at cruelty to greys.

In theory, the red squirrel has just as much protection under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act as the great crested newt. 

But in practice, central Government is evading its responsibility, leaving the task of controlling grey squirrels to volunteers. In the Lake District and the surrounding areas, there are 14 groups struggling to save Squirrel Nutkin.

When Beatrix Potter (above) sat down in the Lake District to write The Tale Of Squirrel Nutkin, the countryside was teeming with wildlife, not least the native red squirrels she saw at every turn. How things have changed since the children’s classic was first published in 1903

It is true that work is under way to develop an inoculation against squirrel pox, and I am all in favour. But we no longer have time to wait for scientists to come up with a practical solution. 

And that is why I believe we now need a thoroughgoing cull of the marauding greys for the sake of our woodland and our indigenous wildlife – and that, in practical terms, means shooting them. The process should be funded by central Government.

I understand why people are concerned that killing grey squirrels might seem a waste of life, but they can at least be eaten. Grey squirrel is delicious, with a tender white meat, whatever the vegan faddists might think. 

I have eaten it smoked, as pâté and in stew. The second part of the answer is a properly funded programme of captive breeding so there are enough red squirrels to release when it is safe to do so.

The Countryside Restoration Trust (CRT), of which I am chairman, has started breeding red squirrels in Norfolk with the East Anglian Red Squirrel Group, for example.

Some of the offspring have already been used as part of a successful red squirrel introduction on Mersea Island, off the coast of Essex, where there are no greys.

There is another breeding programme at The British Wildlife Centre in Surrey, a remarkable place with a walk-through squirrel enclosure open every day during the school holidays. It has already successfully introduced red squirrels to another grey-free zone, Tresco in the Isles of Scilly. 

And now, with the Wildlife Centre and the CRT, I am about to approach the Isle of Man and the Isle of Mull to see if they, too, will become squirrel conservation areas.

Our ambitions don’t stop there. Captive breeding is an essential part of reintroducing red squirrels to mainland Britain, too.

Volunteers are already at work in Cornwall to remove the grey population so that a release of reds can take place, and I believe the same should be attempted in East Anglia, where one long border is already protected by sea.

But for such a scheme to be successful, it would require help in money and manpower from groups such as English Nature, the Forestry Commission and Defra.

Red squirrels are wonderful creatures, and it is one of the great benefits of captive breeding that ordinary members of the public can get close to them in specially designed enclosures. 

If all goes well, there will be a red squirrel sanctuary in Kew Gardens by next year, which I’m sure will be hugely popular with the public.

Yet such measures, however welcome, are simply not enough. Britain’s red squirrels face annihilation unless we act now – and decisively.

In theory, the red squirrel has just as much protection under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act as the great crested newt. But in practice, central Government is evading its responsibility, leaving the task of controlling grey squirrels to volunteers [File photo]

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News Photo Conservationist ROBIN PAGE reveals his plan to save the red squirrels 
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