Red squirrels are arboreal rodents distinguished by their rich red coats (which grey over winter). Like the European Pine Marten, red squirrels were once widespread throughout the UK, but have since heavily reduced in numbers. This is a result of competition with the introduced Eastern Grey Squirrel. Reds are now only found exclusively in Scotland, Ireland, Crosby, and the Isle of Wight. With only 140,000 reds thought to remain (compared to 2.5million greys) conservation efforts have attempted to promote the recovery of red squirrel populations.
Grey squirrels were introduced to the UK in 1976 from North America. Greys are almost twice as heavy as reds but have similar diets and habitats. Greys also live in greater densities than reds. Because of this, greys are able to outcompete and displace reds. Additionally, greys carry a fatal squirrelpox virus. Whilst greys are immune, squirrelpox is lethal to reds with most dying 4-5 days after infection. This explains why red squirrel numbers have declined so heavily.
A survey on behalf of the European Squirrel Initiative showed 69.7% of the UK public wanted greys to be controlled in order to restore the number of red squirrels. In 1998 a project aimed to completely eradicate greys from Anglesey to aid the 40 remaining reds. The project was successful and resulted in reds rapidly recovering on the island – increasing in number and inhabiting an additional 1350 hectares. Levels of squirrelpox virus also decreased on Anglesey. This showed red squirrels could recover naturally if grey squirrels were controlled. Similar conservation projects are therefore intended in Scotland.
Despite this there are concerns regarding the control of greys. Mass-culling of greys may have implications to their ecosystem. Due to decreasing the number of greys, predators would have less prey. Greys also promote tree growth by burying seeds in caches. However, overall, greys seem to cause more damage than good. In urban areas, greys are known to work their way into roofs, where they chew insulation, and may cause fires by eating wiring. They also strip bark – damaging trees. Furthermore greys may be decreasing bird numbers by eating eggs and fledglings.
Reds however are more beneficial to the UK’s nature. Reds bury seeds similar to greys but have a poorer memory. This results in many not being found and promotes greater tree growth. Reds are also more likely to be predated by birds of prey than greys due to being smaller. Pine martens are also known to predate reds. Therefore conservation of reds and reintroductions of pine martens may benefit each other.
As a native species favoured by the public, conservation of red squirrels in the UK is a priority. Though there are welfare concerns regarding culling, greys are ultimately an introduced species negatively impacting our local wildlife. Additionally immunocontraceptives and squirrelpox vaccines may be able to be used in the future to regulate greys by non-lethal means. Therefore, by controlling greys we can not only minimize their damages, but also allow reds to recover naturally and become widespread throughout the UK once more.
Thomas Wilding 
The red vs grey squirrel is a debate everyone in the UK is aware of and there are many contradictory opinions regarding it. However, although your blog is well written and gives a very good summary of the seminar, I am unaware of your own opinion and whether it changed at all from attending this talk. I liked how you told it as a story and spaced it out well with pictures. I didn’t attend the seminar myself but I am assuming it was biased towards conserving the red squirrels from how you portrayed the talk.
I personally think way too much money is being spent in trying to conserve a species which is obviously not as well adapted to our environment as the greys- it is after all survival of the fittest.
A recent news article from the BBC has shown how in fact things are looking up for the red squirrel in regards to the squirrelpox virus with 10% of reds having shown resistance to the virus- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25043355
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A very well detailed and thoroughly explained blog. I would ask where do you personally stand on the subject of grey squirrel eradication/reduction (eradication may be too strong)? Do you believe that if the Greys were controlled the effect it would have on local wildlife would be overall beneficial in the long term or has the grey squirrel integrated itself so deeply into the environment it is now a part of our national ecosystems.
I think humans reap what they sow so are we just removing greys to ease a guilty conscience or is it best that we let nature decide the outcome of the two differing squirrels.
A final thought and I tried to find some information without success is, how have these squirrels not interbred in some instances? I’m going to say that post and pre-zygotic barriers are too strong.
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