Within my book, I have featured an image of bird and squirrel feeders without either of the animals present. I wanted to include this image to make a note of the fact squirrels are actually an endangered species, as are many bird. However, I wanted to focus more on the squirrels here as when I visited, I saw a couple grey squirrels but no red squirrels. After visiting, I spoke to my boyfriend about it who said red squirrels are close to becomign endangered due to grey squirrels. I decided to look into this more so I could gain a better knowledge on it to be able to inform the audience about this too.
Grey squirrels are actually native to North America, but has found its way to England and have slowly pushed out our native red squirrel. It is said red squirrels could be extinct in the next two decades as numbers have halved in the last 50 years. This can take some of the blame off humans and show that nature can also be the cause of endangered species. However, with this in mind, it is still humans that brought the grey squirrel over into the UK in the first place, apparently desiring the “exotic” species to make our forrest look better. It is also said that although these animals have taken over our native squirrel and pushed them away, there was still evidence that red squirrels were in decline before their arrival due to habitat reduction (a human cause, which can come about from climate change as well as destroying habitat to make way for other things) and disease.
- Parsons, C (2011) Red squirrel could be extinct in two decades as numbers fall by 50% in last 50 years (and hedgehogs aren’t far behind) [online] available from <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2041859/Red-squirrel-extinct-2-decades-numbers-fall-50-50-years.html> [1 June 2015]
- Countryfile (2015) 10 Most Endangered Animal Species in Britain [online] available from <http://www.countryfile.com/countryside/10-most-endangered-animal-species-britain> [1 June 2015]
- The Telegraph (2014) History of Grey Squirrels in the UK [online] available from <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/wildlife/10705527/History-of-grey-squirrels-in-UK.html> [1 June 2015]
- Woodlands (2008) How Did the Grey Squirrel Arrive in the UK? [online] available from <http://www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/flora-and-fauna/how-did-the-grey-squirrel-arrive-in-the-uk/> [1 June 2015]