At this time of year,indeed at almost any time of year our feeding stations are visited by Grey Squirrel and yes they do eat quite a lot of the food we put out for the birds. This fact however does not move me to wage war upon these undeniably cute and extremely entertaining creature, after all who am I to decide who eats and who starves?
I spend a great deal of my time in the kitchen and the antics of these talented performers can keep me amused for hours and I know a number of elderly people who treat them as friends and look forward to being entertained by them each day.
To be scrupulously honest I also know one elderly lady who shoots them from her kitchen window to the detriment of her bird table and her son has to buy her a new on every Christmas.
I should also say that she is a rotten shot and has never managed to hit a single squirrel, to her continuing chagrin!
What ever your persuasion I hope that you will agree that the trapping and killing of these animals in public areas should not be allowed. It is often carried out in a most inhumane way by people who gain pleasure from the suffering they cause.
There are gardens in our area who's policy of destroying squirrels has been so successful that there are now none to be seen there, Traps have been found in the past with horribly maimed animals inside, still alive and suffering.
You may be surprised that those who run this garden profess an interest in biodiversity and yet these same managers have systematically removed Ivy , low growing shrubs and a good deal of other habitat in the pursuit of the “Municipal Park” look which is so much cheaper and easier to maintain. One man sits on a mower for a few hours a week...job done.
I have heard it said that squirrel damage trees, well so does the Local Authority yet no one is suggesting that they be hunted and destroyed........but that another story.
Back to the Grey Squirrels, while it may well be true to say that they are in part responsible for the disappearance of the native Red Squirrel that is by no means the whole story.
Red Squirrels are by nature far more retiring than their Grey cousins and are far less able to adapt to the environmental changes which have been bough about in the past couple of centuries by.....us...people like you and me!
Red Squirrels need deciduous woodland and lots off it, guess who's been cutting it down to build towns, cities, roads etc? Red Squirrels need to be able to move freely between these forests, Guess who has caused the ancient woodlands to become small isolated islands in a sea of urbanisation? Wee it was n,t the Grey Squirrels that much is certain.
To blame the Greys for what we have done adds insult to injury and if we persist in our vendetta against them we are likely to end up with no Squirrels at all.
Of course every one has their preference but surely to profess a caring attitude to one species while exterminating another cannot be right. Here we feed the birds and the squirrels and have always done so because that is what we like to do.
I have at the moment a squirrel which has had its tail cut off and its ears removed,this mindless cruelty must stop.
I do not ask that you love the little perishers but have another look,they really are irrisistably cute and a few peanuts is a small price to pay for such acrobatic antics, life would be very dull without them.
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