Squirrels. Love ‘em or hate ‘em?

[Inspector]

If there was a way I would round up all the Starlings and send them back to you guys and I'm sure the First Nations Peoples here would be delighted to have the continent back to themselves but probably couldn't survive once the ammunition ran out.

Pete

 

[Valhalla]

Rabbits were brought to Britain by the Romans

What did the Romans ever do for us???

 

[Inspector]

What did the Romans ever do for us???

Gave you someone to hate for a while.

Pete

 

[Adam W.]

What did the Romans ever do for us???

Transanal evisceration.

 

[Valhalla]

Transanal evisceration

Well.....I had to go and look that one up......bloody Romans

 

[Stevekane]

These sort of threads are always intresting, there was a comment made about what would happen if another species appeared and started to outperform humans,,well its somthing that does concern some serious scientists it seems, I read that there are those that are worried about us beaming out messages into deep space in the hope that these might be picked up by other intelligent beings, the concern is that in the history of the world no people that have been found have benefited from it, and advertiseing that were here to possibly more advanced beings might not be such a clever idea,,native American Indians and Australians spring to mind,,but perhaps more down to earth is the genuine concerns around artificial inteligence which I believe they are working on ways to try to ensure we mantain control,,,,maybe we’ll all, like the little squirrels find ourselves looking down the barrel of a gun,,eek!
Steve

 

[Valhalla]

what would happen if another species appeared and started to outperform humans

It wouldn't happen - we would have nuked them long before then

 

[Inspector]

.....or ourselves.

Pete

 

[Fergie 307]

Flip that on its head. Suppose that a species was introduced that out competed us, to the extent that the human race was faced with extinction.

seems to me we are well on the way to making ourselves extinct if we carry on as we are, no outside help needed.

 

[Fergie 307]

Yes, the English have a lot to answer for

Indeed, although I think Cane Toads were a disaster the Australians managed all on their own. Saw a very interesting programme where a guy is trying to rescue the Northern Quoll (cute little marsupial a bit like a Coati) from near extiction, largely as a result of eating the very poisonous Cane Toads. He live traps them and then feeds them on bits of Cane Toad from which he has removed the poison, and instead laced it with a very powerful emetic. So the Quoll comes to associate eating Cane Toads with feeling very ill, without any lasting harm. Once he gets to the stage where they will not touch the Cane Toad meat he then releases them back to the wild. A follow up study showed that these "trained" Quolls actually pass on the avoidance of Cane Toads to their offspring. Interestingly in small doses the Cane Toad poison is apparently hallucinogenic, so people who are into this kind of thing can throw a Toad party, where they get high by licking the Toads ! Whatever turns you on I suppose.

 

[Morty]

They sunbathe in my garden, how cute

 

[John Hall]

Just last week I was told by a conservation chap that there are definite sightings of Pine Martins in the New Forest, their not sure if its a deliberate reintroduction/rewilding or how they got there, but he also said about the grey squirels not being genetically tuned into how dangerous they were and that as a consequence grey squiril is their favourite meal,

The pine martins have been introduced in some areas to remove the grey squirrels so red squirrels can be re introduced

 

[John Hall]

The simple answer is…don’t use wood for making bird feeders, if you have squirrels near by…

 

[stuart little]

Grey squirrels have as much right to life as red, and if grey are taking over then thats just part of the natural order of the world.

Esecially if they have a Russkie flag!

 

[stuart little]

What did the Romans ever do for us???

They built that there wall to keep Sturgeon out!!

 

[GweithdyDU]

. Equal rights for Grey Squirrels I say.

Except animals don't have 'rights', in the true sense. Rights come with responsibilities, something that many folk who demand 'their rights' seem to forget. Animals have no responsibility towards us at all, they owe us nothing and hence have no rights. However, we have a responsibilities towards them. Ensuring our activity doesn't eradicate them, that we don't keep them in a way that is too far away from how they may live if still wild and yes, if our activity has upset the balance, we have a responsibility to mitigate those type of effects where possible. That's why I don't eat factory meat and rear and kill my own animals; that way I can ensure I have taken responsibility for the animal's welfare and death.
PS. I didn't like the taste of grey squirrel.

 

[Spectric]

Cannot comment as I am vegetarian but they are often on the menu round here and I would say the carnivores Love 'em , but only available in grey!

​

 

[Geoff_S]

The simple answer is…don’t use wood for making bird feeders, if you have squirrels near by…

Funnily enough, I worked that one out

 

[Suffolkboy]

Rabbits were brought to Britain by the Romans. The roses in my Garden are from China, my wife came from Ireland my cat is Persian. Equal rights for Grey Squirrels I say.

I make my living culling animals. Grey squirrels, rabbits, I have culled cats in the past as well.

As I said in my post. There isn't a square inch of land in the British Isles that doesn't have the influence of man. There is no such thing as nature's balance. for land to be managed for housing, agriculture, forestry etc species will always have to be culled/managed.


I bet you'd be perfectly happy to have rats or mice poisoned if your home became infested?

 

[Suffolkboy]

The pine martins have been introduced in some areas to remove the grey squirrels so red squirrels can be re introduced

This is really interesting stuff. It will be interesting to see the impact of Pine Marten on other species...

80% of PM's diet is voles... So how does that impact other vole-feeding species such as birds of prey etc.

PM also eat birds eggs and are generally an extremely succesful predator. Great to see them but I have seen footage of them taking Goshawk chicks. A species that does well in the New Forest.


Whatever. If they can help to reduce Grey squirrel numbers then that's a good thing.