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Might not be good news for squirrel shooters


villaman
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23 minutes ago, villaman said:

The place that has wiped out grey squirrels - BBC News  I thought this was an interesting link from your post, interestingly there is a petition to save the GREY from persecution.. 140,000 stupid 🤬......and rising

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52 minutes ago, villaman said:

It's nothing new, the research has been going on for a while now, will it work? Will it cross to reds?

25 minutes ago, islandgun said:

 

 

The place that has wiped out grey squirrels - BBC News  I thought this was an interesting link from your post, interestingly there is a petition to save the GREY from persecution.. 140,000 stupid 🤬......and rising

Believe it or not people actually take greys to Angelesy and release them!!!

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As mice mentioned, people releasing greys in Red areas is a problem. Some of it is done out of ignorance, but some of it is done deliberately to hamper Red conservation efforts. It has happened locally here in a red only village. I think they shot and caught 10 in 24 hours. The greys had obviously come from a built up area, the ranger told me that just looked lost and had no fear of humans. Definitely not a Cumbrian grey squirrel trait!

The long term contraceptive has been available for a few years, the problem has been how to dispense it to greys without reds eating it as well. They are working on feeders that can only be accessed by heavier greys but not pregnant reds.

I don’t know how they will deal with the problem of infertile greys entering the animal and human food chain.

If the problems are overcome, It will cost millions to roll out the contraception scheme. I think we will be shooting greys for a long time to come!

 

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1 hour ago, islandgun said:

That must be against the law, akin to releasing mink

It is, but like Sciurus says above it happens,  greys can still get onto Angelesy on there own and do, but are quickly dealt with, but when they turn up miles from the entry point!! It's done deliberately. 

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2 hours ago, Mice! said:

It's nothing new, the research has been going on for a while now, will it work? Will it cross to reds?

Believe it or not people actually take greys to Angelesy and release them!!!

But they don’t last long because the majority of the population there don’t want them. There’s a good network of people keeping their eyes out for the.

3 hours ago, villaman said:

It’s a long way off being licensed and in reality the gene drive thing is probably going to be more effective.

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We all know that greys will eat the best of what is available so with a gestation period of just 44 days it is doubtful that the bait stations would be effective when there is plentiful more attractive natural food. It appears to me that the best that can be hoped for is that the squirrels end up breeding later increasing infant mortality the next winter but also possibly increasing the very bark damage that the project is trying to reduce.  Increasing infant mortality through death by  hypothermia due to low body weight can hardly be described as humane compared to a pellet in the head.

Then consider how many bait stations per hectare will be needed and how long the bait will remain palatable and this would appear to be an expensive project. With the pressure on every available pound at the moment to help with getting the country back on its feet I do wonder if this would ever be funded properly. 

We already see within deer management the problems caused by a land owner who refuses to have deer controlled. There will be similar land owners who will not wish to persue control of greys. Wildlife trusts in particular see 'cute' greys as fund raisers and refuse to have them culled - often much to the annoyance of their own rangers who know 1st hand the damage being caused. So a law will be needed making it a legal responsibility to control greys with powers to send in contractors at the land owners expense if control is not carried out, never popular and also expensive as you need to employ folk to do the monitoring.

Overall I do not see culling by shooting ending any time soon.

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Just another loon?

They keep floating up like **** in a cesspit? How does this keep happening?

As 243deer says just imagine the environmental cross species damage that could come from this, defies description. 

Will certainly enter the predator food chain by default? 

That could knock the Red numbers back too as mistakes are inevitable?

1080 next?

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The only way to keep numbers down without causing problems to anything else in the food chain,is to do what we are doing now.Its the only safe and economical way.Getting this across will always be difficult though.Humane shooting and trapping works.And always has.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just can't see it working anyway. Look at how much rat bait is used, but there's still a lot of rats about. Where I shoot there is adjoining woodland that isn't managed, squirrels breed there and come into my permission. I guess where woodland is managed more and there are more workers about the feeders will be filled regularly. Most woods are not like that around here.

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4 hours ago, old man said:

Well, I have tried to find the science behind this, not found anything to examine, compare or test against?

Maybe just me but seems to have lots of signatories and  have a funding shortfall?

Personally still against it!

 

Well I spent 2hrs out this afternoon 4pm till 6pm looking around my BIG wood and only spotted 4 squirrels,  yes it was damp and raining a bit but it shows shooting is effective. 

These different ideas might work given enough time and money but there would still be grey squirrels in the wood, causing damage,  spreading pox.

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On 16/02/2021 at 19:36, bruno22rf said:

Pie in the sky ideas make me laugh - if those in charge forced the control of Squirrels on landowners then numbers of these vermin would decrease overnight.

Being forced to reduce numbers would be very difficult to police though, if landowners didn’t put much effort into it and just made a token effort for example? And who’s going to check on every piece of land, woodland, garden etc in the country, they live in a dream world......the vast majority of the population won’t give two hoots about grey squirrels, alive or dead, so they aren’t going to put any effort into controlling them. But that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong?😁

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On 16/02/2021 at 23:21, Mice! said:

Well I spent 2hrs out this afternoon 4pm till 6pm looking around my BIG wood and only spotted 4 squirrels,  yes it was damp and raining a bit but it shows shooting is effective. 

These different ideas might work given enough time and money but there would still be grey squirrels in the wood, causing damage,  spreading pox.

Well, as most of you know I spend a lot of time eradicating tree rats .... if they called them tha, it would be different..Yes? .........

I have a ten acre wood I consider squirrel free. I do kill around ten a year but they only survive about 24hrs after entering. There are non in residence.  I am at the moment struggling to see them on the other areas I cover locally because again as soon as they poke their nasty little noses in my flip tops they die.  Until an organisation bites the bullet and proposes a serious cull effort in all ways possible, then these tree rats will still be out there destroying stuff.  Keep whacking and stacking.  I had never seen a nuthatch in my little wood until I eliminated tre rats, now they are almsot the predominant bird.

Edited by Walker570
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On 16/02/2021 at 23:21, Mice! said:

Well I spent 2hrs out this afternoon 4pm till 6pm looking around my BIG wood and only spotted 4 squirrels,  yes it was damp and raining a bit but it shows shooting is effective. 

These different ideas might work given enough time and money but there would still be grey squirrels in the wood, causing damage,  spreading pox.

When this new bait is out It might be causing sterility in more mammalian species than just the greys? No real world acceptable way of testing it either? Mumsnet will be on fire?

Tried for 2 more locations this week.

I polite refusal but details kept on file for future and no reply yet from the other.

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