“Unfortunately, the only way to do this is eradication of grey squirrel”
Bill Ferguson sounds blunt. Maybe too blunt for a nature magazine feature, but he is the co-ordinator for a squirrel group in southern Scotland. He wants every single grey squirrel dead. Or at least, gone from the area completely.
Why?
Squirrelpox.
It’s a virus carried by grey squirrels. They usually ignore it, shrug it off, live their lives. Red squirrels get hit with it, though, and they die fast. Several cases popped up recently in the Borders, plus other pockets across the country. It is not just a theoretical threat. The virus is out there, circulating.
Ferguson says there are no other options. No magic cure. No vaccine available to buy, let alone afford for wild animals. If you want to keep reds alive, you have to remove the carriers. That means the greys.
He is not offering a compromise. We can’t keep both. One species has to leave the stage.
Until a new contraceptive comes online—a tool that lets the greys just “die off naturally”—trapping and killing is the job on hand. It feels brutal to write it down, but it is the reality on the ground right now.
What can ordinary people do?
Check your bird feeders. Those hanging plates full of sunflower seeds are feeding stations for both types of squirrel. If reds are hanging around, they are likely rubbing shoulders with greys at dinner. Take the feeders down. Keep them inside for three weeks. Clean them properly when you bring them back out. Disinfect them.
It sounds simple. It’s just a feeder, right? But every week those stay down breaks the cycle. Maybe it buys a little time.
There is history here, of course. Grey squirrels didn’t always live in Britain. Someone brought them over from North America during the 1800s. Now they are everywhere, multiplying while the native reds shrink in number. It was an invasion, just a quiet one with furry tails and twitchy noses.
Of course, people hate the idea of culling. Critics argue that squirrelpox isn’t even the main killer anymore, claiming reds spread the disease among themselves just as easily, or maybe easier. They point out the symptoms are confusing, overlapping with other issues. Killing animals to solve a problem feels messy, morally questionable to some, definitely ugly.
Ferguson hears these arguments. He likely shakes his head at the science they cite, or maybe he just doesn’t have time to argue semantics. The red squirrels are disappearing. The greys are thriving. Something has to change.
“Getting rid of greys is the only way we currently protect the red squirrel.”
He sticks to the line. No soft edges. Just removal.
You might feel a pang of sympathy for the greys, after all. They look cute in photos. But conservation work isn’t about cuteness. It’s about balance. Sometimes the balance looks like an extermination list.
The contraceptive research gives a glimmer of a future without traps. But it’s not here yet. So, for now, the decision stands. Keep the feeders in the house. Watch the trees. Let the reds survive while the greys vanish, one by one, or however it takes to clear the
