UK Nature and Environment

390 readers

44 users here now

General Instance Rules:

No racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or xenophobia.
No incitement of violence or promotion of violent ideologies.
No harassment, dogpiling or doxxing of other users.
Do not share intentionally false or misleading information.
Do not spam or abuse network features.

Community Specific Rules:

Keep posts UK-specific. There are other places on Lemmy to post articles which relate to global environmental issues (e.g. slrpnk.net).
Keep comments in English so that they can be appropriately moderated.

Note: Our temporary logo is from The Wildlife Trusts. We are not officially associated with them.

Our autumn banner is a shot of maple leaves by Hossenfeffer.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

Kim

GreyShuck

Anglesey: Captured grey squirrel may have taken train to island of reds (www.bbc.co.uk)

submitted 7 months ago by GreyShuck to c/nature

6 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A grey squirrel which may have ridden a train to the home of Wales' largest red squirrel population has been captured, following fears it could have killed off the local species.

The animal was spotted by a member of the public on Anglesey in mid-February who reported it to Red Squirrels Trust Wales after weeks on the loose.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] DaCrazyJamez@sh.itjust.works 0 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Huh. I have a fairly healthy population of both (north american) Grey and Red squirrels living in my backyard, and they seem to cohabitate just fine. Granted, the enviroment here in the midwest USA may be quite different from there.

I just never saw either species seem to have any problems thriving. The biggest challenge here (aside from automobiles) is red-tail hawks.

[–] GreyShuck 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Presumably squirrel-pox is not prevalent around you.

Unfortunately it is in the UK and as a result red squirrels are now extinct in the majority of the country. They are just hanging on in a few isolated (literally in the case on Anglesey) strongholds where grey squirrels are not present.

[–] DaCrazyJamez@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago

Oh man, thats aweful. I guess Im glad to have the several families of the little critters trying to steal seed from my birdfeeder...

[–] Kim 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

The red squirrels we have in the UK (Sciurus vulgaris) are a completely different species to the red squirrels I think you're referring to (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus).

[–] DaCrazyJamez@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago

Yes, I think you're correct. Though they do look very similar.