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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 เม.ย. 2022
- Pinemartens are being encouraged to breed and hunt down grey squirrels as efforts to protect native reds are stepped up.
Nesting boxes are being installed in forests to support pine martens, which will act as 'bouncers,' by preying on greys as they advance towards the Highlands. Susan Nicholson reports.
I saw a Pine Martin during the night, in Strathaven, in my back garden. Now I know why I haven't seen any grey squirrels for a few months now.
Let the battle begin.
I spotted a pyne Martin near Hinckley in Leicestershire on the sides of wooded part of the A47, unmistakable, the ears and the lovely markings!!
"Up with the Reds, Down with the Greys !" ☆
You get martens in North America too though where grey squirrels originate so they can't be that unable to evade predation.
The eastern grey squirrels have many more natural predators in the u.s. including birds of prey,marten, fishers,bobcats,coyotes, raccoons, fox and snakes
Interesting
For sure.
The martens are more likely to kill red squirrels. The reds only hope is to hide. Greys are much stronger and larger. Seems a mad gamble. You will never be able to eliminate the grey, it’s just far too successful, pervasive. Why not just breed a grey squirrel that has a redder coat?
Being stronger is worse in this case as either way the Pine Martin wins and red squirrels are used to European pine martins which is why they’re smaller and gray squirrels are not
The squirrels being red isnt really the point, we want to conserve the native species as they are the actual native species which are genetically extinct. Studies have found that the introduction of pine marten reduces competition between grey and red squirrels. Red squirrels evolved with Pine marten, whilst greys did not.
More meat on a Grey than a red.