RED squirrels

[tegwini]

Just back from France & saw a couple of RED squirrels in my garden there- amazing!  First time I've seen them in the wild.

Tegwini

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Thought they didn't exist anymore in the UK? Good one.

[AnOther]

Red squirrels certainly do still exist in UK and in some areas there is active culling of greys going on to try and protect them.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/fr/INFD-6A4LVQ

They are quite common in this area but we also have black ones which I recently learnt are in fact just a subspecies of reds which are very very dark red and not black at all.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Good news.

I'd heard about the black squirrels a while back. but didn't know they were a subspieces of the reds.

[tegwini]

Hi Richard

Some REDS left in the UK -  here in the south only on Isle of Wight, Brownsea Island & a few odd places.  Lake district too, but seen plenty of greys in Wilts garden, never RED.   Greys imported from the USA by the Victorians.   I expect there were more in the time of Beatrix Potter and Squirrel Nutkins.

Don't know anything about 'black' ones you mention.

There is a programme to cull/slaughter the greys - not sure if this will work- England too crowded anyway for much wildlife to live naturally.

Tegwini

[AnOther]

[quote user="tegwini"]England too crowded anyway for much wildlife to live naturally.[/quote]Oh I don't know, the hoards of feral youths and other low life's seem seem to thrive and multiply [blink]

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Maybe the fox hunt could be rebranded into low life hunts?

[Celine]

Can red squirrels mate with grays and vice versa?

[Scooby]

[quote user="Richard"]Maybe the fox hunt could be rebranded into low life hunts?

[/quote]

My cousin shoots and eats them (the grey squirrels that is).  Apparently they are a delicacy - though heaven knows how many you'd need for a decent meal....

[AnOther]

In strict biological terms I can't see why not but I think the differences between the two species means that they would likely fight rather to the death than mate. I'm not sure their mating cycles are complimentary either [:'(]

A bit like a few married couples I know come to think of it [:D]

It's widely assumed that competition for food is the major factor in the decline of the native red but according to this study that seems perhaps not to be the case:

Document title

The mechanism of replacement of red squirrels by grey squirrels : A test of the Interference Competition Hypothesis

School of Biological Sciences, Queen Mary & Westfield College, London,

Abstract

Introduced

American grey squirrels have replaced native red squirrels in most of

the range currently occupied in Britain and northern Italy. The

mechanisms of the replacement are not yet fully understood. We restated

the commonly cited Interference Competition Hypothesis (ICH) that grey

squirrels interfere with the behaviour of red squirrels in three

possible ways: 1. by direct aggressive interactions; 2. by interrupting

red squirrel mating-chases; or 3. by forcing red squirrels to actively

avoid areas intensively used by grey squirrels. We compared the

activity pattern, behaviour and reproductive performance of red

squirrels in two study areas in northern Italy, one with only red

squirrels (control area C1), the other with both species (experimental

area El). The following predictions were tested: 1. the total time

spent in both intraspecific and interspecific interactions by red

squirrels increases in the experimental area; 2. most interspecific

interactions are aggressive, with grey squirrels being the dominant

species; 3. the proportion of breeding female red squirrels that are

unsuccessful at weaning offspring increases in area El; 4. grey

squirrels take part and interfere with red squirrel mating-chases, and

thereby decrease the reproductive output of red squirrel females; 5.

the activity pattern of red squirrels in the mixed-species area is

shifted with respect to that in the control area to the hours of the

day during which grey squirrels show little activity; and 6. red

squirrels will shift their home range (or at least their core-area)

when grey squirrel densities increase to avoid interspecific core-area

overlap. Our results supported only the first prediction of the ICH:

they failed to support all the other predictions. Moreover, the

increase in the percentage of active time red squirrels spent

interacting with other squirrels in the experimental study area was

very small (only 1-2 min/day). Red squirrels did not avoid the woodland

patches most intensively used by grey squirrels and the interspecific

core-area overlap was similar to red squirrel intraspecific core-area

overlap. This suggested that red squirrels avoided spatial overlap with

grey squirrels in a similar manner as with conspecifics and that an

increase in grey squirrel numbers will augment the intensity of

resource competition. We therefore conclude that our results do not

lend support to the Interference Competition Hypothesis and that

interference competition by grey squirrels cannot explain the

large-scale replacement of red by grey squirrels that has occured in

Britain and in

[chris pp]

No Celine, they can't and Black squirrels aren't a sub species of Red squirrels.

In the UK the Black squirrels are now understood to be a sub species of the American Grey.

Red squirrels: Although they are named Red squirrels that can be a bit misleading as their colour can vary from virtually black, though all shades of brown, red, and grey. In some cases this will depend on the time of year, in other instances they can maintain a dark coat all the time. This is all the same species.

Chris

 

[AnOther]

I thought we touched this subject a while ago Chris and it was you who told me that blacks were in fact reds ?

[chris pp]

In France that is the case as above "Red squirrels: Although they are named Red squirrels that can be a bit misleading as their colour can vary from virtually black, though all shades of brown, red, and grey. In some cases this will depend on the time of year, in other instances they can maintain a dark coat all the time. This is all the same species."

In the UK, as above "Black squirrels are now understood to be a sub species of the American Grey."

The American Grey and the Eurasian Red are quite different in their size and other characteristics. In France there are no Grey squirrels, in most of the UK there are no Reds.

Keep it simple.[:)]

Chris

[Jonzjob]

The reds are beautiful little perishers. We are lucky enough to have them in our garden and these two are youngsters chasing each other about just outside our back bedroom window

[IMG]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f180/Jonzjob/Johns/Redsquiggles29cropped.jpg[/IMG]

And this cheeky one was trying to line it's winter nest with some plant cover fleece. This was about a foot outside our lounge window!

[IMG]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f180/Jonzjob/Johns/Squiggleonthewall1.jpg[/IMG]

And a more traditional nesting material just outside our bedroom window

[IMG]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f180/Jonzjob/Johns/Squiggleneststuff1.jpg[/IMG]

When they are about all activity stops to watch them!