On red alert for squirrel survival

Nov 12 2008 by Emma Pinch, Liverpool Daily Post

On red alert for squirrel survival

Emma Pinch meets the team trying to save the remaining population from extinction

FORMBY’S Red Squirrel Reserve has an eerie feel to it these days. It’s a gorgeous autumn morning, sun slicing through the mist and making dew on the pines sparkle.

But it’s empty of squirrels. Instead of busy scampering there’s upended bags of monkey nuts, discarded in disgust by visitors, and baited cages under trees.

In the three years since squirrel pox came to the region, it’s the first time I’ve been on the reserve’s Squirrel Walk and not seen a single one of the animals it was named for.

Traditionally about 1,500 squirrels have made their home in 400 hectares of woods hugging the Sefton coast.

The first outbreak of the pox was discovered in Scarisbrick three years ago.

The disease then ravaged the Sefton population, reducing it by an average of 50%. It swept south through Ainsdale’s National Nature Reserve and then further south into Formby’s densely populated National Trust Reserve. Formby was worst hit; an estimated 80% were wiped out.

Exact numbers are impossible to gauge, but it’s feared as few as 500 red squirrels are now left living here.

Thom Dallimore is the man tasked with trying to prevent the red squirrel dying out. Drafted in four months ago, the red squirrel field officer is equipped with nets, gloves and swab-taking kits to dash out whenever a virus-ridden squirrel is found.

A vital part of his remit is to conduct surveys recording sightings of red squirrels, to gauge how many squirrels are left and where. He warns his autumn report, due in three weeks time, will make grim reading.

“We can track the movement of the disease by where we are finding the most recent cases,” he says.

“In three years the disease has swept south, from Ainsdale. Over the last year it has reduced the population at Formby by 80%. Then we were finding squirrels dead in the woods further south slightly behind Shorrocks Hill in Formby.”

He picked up 12 carcasses in October. Worryingly the most recent have been in the Formby National Trust Squirrel Reserve again, on the Squirrel Walk.

“The new figures are scary because could mean the disease is on the move again. It could sweep through the red squirrel reserve at Formby again, and the numbers there are already dramatically reduced,” he adds.

The pox’s onslaught into the area three years ago roughly coincided with the time the larger, and more resilient, grey began to make inroads into the region’s parks, gardens and patches of woodland.

About 60%of greys carry the squirrel virus, it’s estimated, and although it doesn’t do them harm, with the red squirrel it’s a vastly different scenario.