Forced out by US cousins

THERE are about 160,000 native red squirrels left in the UK, 75 per cent of them in the Scottish Highlands. There used to be .5million.

The biggest threat to them are grey squirrels, imported from the US in the 1870s and now numbering five million.

Greys carry a virus that is often fatal to their smaller cousins. They also eat the unripe acorns reds rely on. The Woodland Trust said: ‘Another huge factor in red squirrel decline is the loss of woodland over the last century, but road traffic and predators are threats too.’

Grey squirrels were eliminated from Anglesey in 2015 following an 18-year cull. In that time the red population has grown from 40 to 800.