So many young squirrels have been born this year that they have started moving into people’s gardens in the Yorkshire dales. Places they haven’t seen for decades.
This year has produced a bumper crop of the pine cones that red squirrels need to eat. While fantastic news, this advance is unlikely to be permanent unless humans extend the the cull zone for the grey squirrels in the surrounding area.
Unfortunately, the only permanent solution would be to trans-locate a number of pine martens in to the Yorkshire dales to boost the small number that still exist there. These would predate the grey squirrels, unlikely swing survival old back in the favor of the red.
The Yorkshire dales is not the only part of the country where this solution would be helpful, but if done in the next couple of years it would take less work and money to carry out, pushing the grey squirrels territory further south.
