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.