h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is a good awareness-raising article

It's a rotten shame to have to kill masses of grey squirrels every year. What's happening is exactly what we should all expect to happen when an alien species is introduced onto an island or other new habitat. A whole range of indigenous species are threatened. It's not the squirrels' fault. They were kidnapped and transported. You know me Websailor: I'm daft about almost every kind of animal - rats being a particular favourite. And it upsets me that grey squirrels are culled every autumn in my area.

The trouble is, they're known to raid bird nests and just wreck them: throw out the eggs or chicks and tear the actual nest apart. Sometimes, there are even signs that the squirrels have eaten the eggs and chicks. We didn't know any of that when the population started to get out of hand. Quite a few of my neighbours (including me) used to feed the greys because, like you, we thought they were cute and entertaining and it discouraged them from destroying bird-feeders. The population exploded - no doubt *because* we fed them so well. Then, one year my next-door neighbour had several bird species (as far as I remember, robins, tits, tree-creepers, sparrows and green finches) nesting his garden. He was very excited about it, and monitored all the nests quite closely - until he came home and found they were all destroyed. He witnessed grey squirrels just finishing off the last one. Perhaps that happens a lot in the wild where no-one's there to witness it. Or maybe it only happened because we'd artificially increased the squirrel population and there were just too many of them competing with the birds for food. Since then, my neighbour shoots them whenever he sees them. It's the gamekeepers in this area that shoot them in the autumn.

The humane answer is to invent time travel, then go back and cull the idiots who introduced them in the first place - before they get a chance to catch the first pairs in North America. That would sort out the problem without harming the innocent little furry rascals

Hi, Tib,

Yes, it is very unfortunate that previous generations have made those mistakes with Canada geese too, who are a menace. Our local pool surroundings are totally stripped of any vegetation down to dry dusty hard ground. Mink are another serious problem too.

I think you are right that the squirrels probably only do that much damage where there is a population explosion and they run out of food options. The number here seem pretty stable, but we have had eleven at once when the young ones arrived. That is when there is the most damage done here as they run riot and haven't a clue what they are doing.

If I wish to continue feeding birds I have no choice but to tolerate the squirrels, and it is easier to feed them than suffer the damage to feeders, which is a mighty costly business.I really don't know what the authorities will do about them, but culling will be a might big and expensive job.

Like you I hate the thought of them being killed, but if they really are damaging trees to that extent and taking birds eggs and fledglings then that could have serious long term consequences.

There are many more alien species here now, more than we are aware of, so I hope people will just stop importing and releasing alien species before we have a real catastrophe on our hands.

Thanks for reading

We don't see those numbers round our gardens any more. One is usually all we see - and that's enough to get the fellas reaching for their guns. A couple of weeks ago when I went out to fill the feeders, I found a 'squirrel-proof' peanut feeder lying bent and broken on the ground. You probably have similar peanut feeders - like the seed feeders you have only with a wire tube instead of plastic. The little wrecker had somehow managed to pull all the strands of wire on one side of the tube, away from the bottom two circles of wire and then pulled the whole thing over to release all the peanuts. You have to hand it to them: they're clever and determined. But those feeders aren't cheap so my first thoughts weren't of admiration for the industrious grey squirrel. Still, they are impressive.

There was one curled round the tray of one of my seed feeders earlier today - like Smaug the Worm coiled around his heap of stolen treasure. At first I thought it was dead and I was just feeling sorry for the poor little critter, and wondering how on earth my neighbour had managed to shoot it through all the vegetation, when it woke up and started stuffing itself again. I think it had just eaten so much that it needed a little after dinner nap. I chased it off so the intended customers could get a look-in

The cull isn't likely to be a one-off sort of 'final solution' affair. That could never work as you pointed out. Where grey squirrels are wiped out, new ones move in. I suppose it depends where you live, but where I am, every other bloke seems to own a gun - and most (possibly all) of them shoot grey squirrels. In addition to the year-round pops taken by my immediate neighbours who get furious at the digging up of bulbs, killing of birds and damage to property, there's the annual cull carried out by the game-keepers. If we still had the numbers we had back at the time of the population explosion, I think I'd have to go for those really expensive, practically armour-plated, squirrel-proof feeders.

Here's a funny thing: when I got back from my walk, about an hour ago, my neighbour opposite called me over to have a look round his garden. He told me that he has problems with wood pigeons eating all his greens - but no squirrels at all. We live on a lane. The road running between our two gardens, is just about wide enough for two cars to pass. And yet the squirrels have never ventured across that road. Isn't that strange?

Is it still legal for people to bring alien species into the country, do you know?