BBC Wildlife Magazine

Shades of grey

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Often grey squirrels are seen merely as nuisances that pilfer bird food and debark trees. They’re held responsibl­e for the plight of native red squirrels, too. But they are the closest many of us come to wild mammals, and at this time of year their frantic nose-totail mating chases are very entertaini­ng. Now the Sanger Institute in Cambridges­hire is sequencing the species’ entire genome, together with that of its red relative. The ultimate goal is to decode the squirrelpo­x immunity of grey squirrels in case it can be passed to reds.

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Sanger Institute: sanger.ac.uk

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