Non-lethal methods alone won’t save England’s red squirrels

Red squirrel extinction risk in England

England’s red squirrels face extinction on the mainland within 25 years unless the Government commits to lethal grey squirrel control in the face of public opposition, the Countryside Alliance has said.

The warning came in response to Natural England’s England Red Squirrel Recovery Strategy, published on 14 April. Produced by the Zoological Society of London, the report assessed 18 management options and found that holding current effort steady — or abandoning lethal control in favour of fertility treatments alone — left red squirrel extinction across mainland England a high probability within a generation.

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Countryside Alliance response

Countryside Alliance spokesman Johnnie Furse said decision makers had to act regardless of public sentiment. “It is clear that decision makers will need to bite the bullet and press on with grey squirrel control, despite public opposition,” he said. “The main problem is not how to get the public on board with grey squirrel control, it is the plummeting red squirrel population and how best to reverse the species’ decline.”

Fewer than 39,000 red squirrels survive in England, confined to pockets of the far north and a handful of islands including the Isle of Wight and Poole Harbour. Grey squirrels, brought over from North America in 1876, have steadily displaced them — outcompeting reds for food and carrying squirrelpox virus, which kills reds but leaves greys unaffected.

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Public opposition to grey squirrel control

The report found that public appetite for control methods is limited: 56% of people in England would oppose kill trapping, 53% would oppose shooting and 45% would oppose live trapping and dispatch. Oral contraceptives for greys and a squirrelpox vaccine are both in development, but the report was clear that non-lethal methods alone cannot deliver recovery.

“The Government will need to take the urgent action recommended,” Mr Furse said, “not worry about whether or not the public will be opposed.”