Red squirrels bounce back after stately home tackles grey scourge

A COLONY of red squirrels almost wiped out by a disease spread by their grey cousins have made a remarkable comeback.

An outbreak of ‘squirrelpox’ came close to eradicating the population of red squirrels at the National Trust’s Wallington Hall, Northumberland, in 2011 – but now they have bounced back to their original numbers of around 170.

The charity recruited Glen Graham, their first red squirrel ranger, to oversee the turnaround. His team trapped and humanely killed the greys that had moved in to the woods.

Mr Graham said: ‘The constant presence of rangers, alongside the support of visitors and volunteers, is crucial to safeguarding red squirrel populations. We need ... to protect one of Britain’s best-loved species.’

David Bullock, head of nature conservation at the National Trust, said: ‘Red squirrels are facing a constant battle and those National Trust sites where they can be still found are increasingly important.’

Tomorrow marks the start of Red Squirrel Awareness Week. Only 15,000 of the species are left in England, down from an estimated population of 3.5million. They have lived in the UK for around 10,000 years whereas greys were only introduced from North America in 1876.

Not only do the larger greys compete for food and shelter, but they carry and transmit the deadly ‘squirrelpox’ virus, which they are resistant to, but which kills reds.

There are now estimated to be just 140,000 red squirrels left in the whole of Britain, compared to 2.5million greys.

‘One of Britain’s best-loved species’