ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: There's something moving in the water.

Is it a bird? Is it a fish?

No, it's a squirrel?

CAROL : So squirrels can swim. That always amazes people.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: And sometimes they cross big bodies of water

like the Menai Strait in Wales.

And that's where the problem begins. :

On the island of Ynys Môn, Anglesey, in North Wales,

there's a mission underway to protect one of Britain's most

endangered mammals, the red squirrel. From extinction and

the growing threat of the grey squirrel, a danger that can even

arrive by sea.

Keeping this small population of squirrels safe is a game of high

stakes and ingenuity. I'm Rosie Holdsworth and you're listening

to Wild Tales.

Operation Nutcracker | The Return Of The Red Squirrel.

No doubt you've seen a squirrel before, down the road, in a park

or darting up a telegraph pole. Chances are it's a grey

squirrel. They were introduced to the UK in the late 1800's and

now there are millions of them.

One you're much less likely to see is the red squirrel. It's

our native species and it's been here for thousands of years. But

now it's one of Britain's most endangered mammals, with very

few places where it still survives. One of those places is

the island of Ynys Môn, Anglesey, in North Wales.

Not so long ago there were only 40 red squirrels remaining here.

Today, we're heading to Plas Newydd, where rangers run daily

red squirrel walks, giving visitors a chance to catch a

glimpse of a red squirrel in a place where they're making a

comeback.

CAROL : I'm Carol. I've been volunteering as a squirrel

ranger here since it started, which must be about seven years

now. But yeah, I've always been interested in animals, looking

after animals. So the opportunity to come and work as

a ranger here for the National Trust was, well, it was too good

to turn down.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Here at Plas Newydd, Carol is getting ready

to head out.

CAROL : We do two walks a day, telling people about our

squirrels, trying to give people that enthusiasm for the red

squirrels and why it's important to keep protecting them.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Carol knows these woods very well.

CAROL : So this is where I start off the walk. So I gather people

up here and we do a little introduction and we set off down

this way.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: It's a chance for her to make sure that

visitors have their eyes firmly fixed in the right direction.

CAROL : When they're looking for squirrels, they walk around like

this.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Which is head lifted towards the sky.

CAROL : And you're just going to headbutt a tree or trip over.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: So instead...

CAROL : I walk for a bit and then I stop and we have a tap.

And while we stop, that's when they can look for squirrels.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: And as Carol sets off, it's not too far

before she gets to the first stopping point.

CAROL : This is Dairy Wood. We're in Dairy Wood, so it's a

lovely mixed woodland. We've got a beautiful canopy above us and

we're lucky today that the sun is out and we have very little

wind, so the trees aren't moving, which when we're looking

for squirrels is really helpful.

But we are quite close to the road here, but there is a reason

why I stop quite close to the road, because this is lovely

woodland. But then just over the other side of the road we've got

lovely woodland. And our squirrels, we don't keep them

here. And we're quite happy if our squirrels go that way, but

they've got to get across that road.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: When a stretch of woodland is split in two by a

road, that's what's known as habitat fragmentation. And for

an animal that spends most of its life in the trees, coming

down to the ground can be dangerous.

CAROL : And unfortunately we do have casualties. So what the

National Trust have done is they've put up a squirrel

bridge. It's nothing fancy. It's two telegraph poles and a rope.

If you imagine a squirrel up there, it's so easy for them to

get from one tree to the next to the next without having to come

down onto the floor. So if they can stay up there and still get

across that road, it just gives them that opportunity to cross

over without getting squished.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: And when there are so few red squirrels left,

every safe crossing matters.

CAROL : So we start off on this nice manicured path, but we are

going to turn into the woods in a bit.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: And as she walks, Carol likes to keep her

visitors on their toes.

CAROL : I start off by asking people who's seen a red and I'll

get sort of maybe half the group have and then I say who's seen a

grey and you'll hear the different responses.'Oh in my

garden,' you know, they don't like them. And then I explain,

well, the reason for that is there's about three million

greys and only about 200,000 reds.

And I say, well, let's see if you can tell me the difference

between a grey and a red. I'm going to show you two photos.

You tell me if it's grey and a red. And it's a trick question

because it's a grey squirrel who's got a red coat. And then

I've got a picture of a red squirrel with a grey coat.

And it's really nice to point out the differences, like the

reds have the tufty ears. The greys have got the white edge to

their tail. So it's nice to show them those photos because they

all go, "oh yeah, that's a red". And then someone will go, "oh,

but it hasn't got the tufty ears." There's always someone

who picks it up. So that's quite interesting to tell people as

well.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Another difference is that grey

squirrels are 25% larger and almost twice the weight of a red

squirrel, which means they eat a lot more food. But how did the

grey squirrels get here in the first place?

CAROL : They were reintroduced in the 1870s, so we have the

Victorians to thank for that. So people who lived in these lovely

big houses would go travelling, and so they went over to North

America and they saw these grey squirrels, and they thought,

well, we haven't got any of those at home, we've just got

those little red ones. I'll bring some back to show my

friends how well travelled I am.

And so they did, but they soon got fed up with them and just

released them into their parkland. And from that point

on, squirrels do what they do, they reproduce, they're

multiplied. We started to see a drop in the number of reds,

because at that... Point in time we would have had about three

million Red Squirrels in this country and now it's completely

flipped we've got three million grey squirrels.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: So here at Plas Newydd a lot goes into

keeping the Red Squirrels thriving.

CAROL : We're going to go in here now we've got one of our

feeders up there and we've also got this log which is where I'm

going to go and put some food out.

So the food I'm putting out it's sunflower seeds and we put them

out whole so they've got the black outer husk on and our

squirrels when they eat these seeds If we're lucky enough

later and we've got a squirrel sat on this log he will pick

each one up with his paws and then they bite into it and they

split it and they just leave the husk lying around.

So this is a bird-proof squirrel feeder. So most people in the

country have squirrel-proof bird feeders but we're the other way

around so our squirrel he comes along sits on there and then

he's got to lift that lid up to get to the food. The birds can't

get it but our squirrels can.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: And it's not just sunflower seeds that the

squirrels have a taste for.

CAROL : Pine cones, our little darlings, they love getting the

seeds out of the pine cones. And what our squirrels do is they

turn it round and they pull the little leaves off to get to the

seeds that are inside. So they turn it and turn it and turn it.

You've got a spiral pattern on these pine cones. And whether

the spiral goes to the left or the right... depends on whether

the squirrel turned it to the left or the right and that

depends on whether they're left or right handed.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: It's all evidence to show the Red

Squirrels are here and well.

CAROL : I always like to show people those because it's

something they can then go and look for after we've done the

walk or next time they're out for a walk in some woodland they

can have a look for it.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: But not that long ago they almost disappeared

altogether.

CAROL : Well they were always here but they were in decline

because the grey squirrels were also here.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: By the 1990s, there were just 40 red squirrels

left on Ynys Môn, something had to change.

A group of local people came together to try to turn things

around, working across the island to protect and rebuild

the population. The grey squirrels were removed and Red

Squirrels were reintroduced into woodlands like this one.

CAROL : So this is the long walk, so you've got these lovely

pine trees. So people do often report seeing squirrels in these

trees as well. But you've got this fantastic view ahead of us,

but all we're looking at is the straights really in front of us

and two rows of pine trees, so it is a lovely view.

Go and check this feeder here and then we'll go down to the

hive. So this is Churchbank Wood and this is where the

reintroduction was, so this is where they reintroduced six Red

Squirrels in 2008.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: And it wasn't just here. A handful of similar

reintroductions have taken place in woodlands across Ynys Môn.

And over time, the population began to grow.

Today, there are around 800 red squirrels on the island. But

keeping them safe is another matter.

CAROL : In 2009 they started to see red squirrels in the

woodland on the other side of the Menai Straits. So they had

crossed from Anglesey to the mainland. As I said earlier, a

bit like crossing the road, we don't mind our squirrels going

that way, but we don't want the greys that are over there,

coming this way.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Not just competition for habitat, grey

squirrels can also carry a deadly virus.

CAROL : I mean the main risk is that the grey squirrels carry a

disease called squirrel pox. Unfortunately the reds don't

seem to have any natural immunity to it and if they come

into contact with it they'd probably be dead within two to

three weeks. So we really don't want those greys back over here.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: But keeping Ynys Môn free of grey squirrels

hasn't been easy.

CAROL : Since about 2013-2014 Anglesey has been mainly grey

squirrel free. I say mainly because they are only just over

there on the mainland. They can get across, they do get across.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Sometimes they cross from the mainland on one

of the two bridges or sometimes they find another route.

CAROL : So squirrels can swim, so they can swim the Menai

Straits and that always amazes people.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: It sounds unlikely, but it's true because

they're always on the move looking for food or new

territory. And every so often that means crossing water, even

the Menai Strait.

CAROL : A few years ago there was somebody out in a boat and

he managed to get a picture of a grey squirrel swimming across.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: They swim with their heads above the water,

using their paws to paddle and their tails to steer.

So keeping them from getting back onto Ynys Môn takes real

ingenuity.

CAROL : So they tried a few things, one of which was they

put some speakers near the bridges and played loud scary

noises.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Trying to scare the squirrels off.

CAROL : But all the grey squirrels did. Was go behind the

speakers and chewed all the wires, so they weren't that

bothered about the loud noises.

So then they thought, oh, we'll get the scent of a predator.

Bearing in mind that grey squirrels originated from North

America, what predator scent might be useful? So we have a

little debate about that. People come up with a few suggestions,

you know, wolves or bears or whatever. But no, they actually

went and got tiger poo.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: But that didn't work either.

CAROL : And so obviously we can't barricade the whole of the

Menai Strait to keep the grey squirrels away but what we do

have, our secret weapon, is the people who live on Anglesey.

They love their red squirrels, they're very passionate about

their red squirrels.

They'll have feeder boxes in their gardens, they'll get to

know the ones that come and visit on a regular basis, they

get to know if they've got youngsters, they keep an eye out

for any that look sick, but they also keep an eye out for any

grey squirrels.

If they see a grey squirrel, they report it just in case it's

one of our red squirrels who's got a bit of a grey coat and

somebody, you know, accidentally thought it was a grey, but it's

not.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Over on the mainland in Wales, they've tried

something different, bringing back a native species.

CAROL : They have also reintroduced Pine Martins.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: And it might just be working.

CAROL : Because what they found is where they've reintroduced

pine martens in areas where there are grey squirrels and red

squirrels, the number of grey squirrels goes down and the

number of red squirrels goes up.

And again they think it's to do with the fact that pine martins

are native, red squirrels are native, so a red squirrel smells

a pine martin and it's off. But as yet, grey squirrels don't

recognise pine martins so they stay around so they're that bit

easier to catch.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: And all that effort to keep the grey

squirrels off Ynys Môn is making a difference. It's helping to

restore a native species to a landscape where they'd all but

disappeared. Which means that visitors will have a much better

chance of catching a glimpse of that elusive red squirrel.

CAROL : So what we've got, we're just so lucky, we've just

checked the feeder, and we've got two squirrels chasing each

other around a tree. You don't very often see two squirrels

together. We're so lucky to be seeing this because they're

normally quite solitary but to see two of them running around a

tree like that it's quite possibly a male and a female but

that's so nice to see them.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Because seeing red squirrels in the wild,

thriving, it's pretty special.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Wild Tales. If you

enjoyed it, why not give us a follow or a review? And if you'd

like to find out more about the red squirrels and their

reintroduction at Ynys Môn, then head to the episode show notes.

We've also got a Wild Tales episode on the reintroduction of

pine martens, if you fancy a listen. See you next time.