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| Tax payer foots the bill again for CONservation hooliganism!
How did these looneys ever get into power?
http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=1662122006
Red alert as £3.7m drive is revealed to target Scotland's grey
invaders
IAN JOHNSTON
ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT (ijohnston@scotsman.com)
A FIVE-YEAR plan to save the red squirrel has ruled out the complete
eradication of the invading hordes of greys, Scottish Natural Heritage
revealed yesterday.
However, the £3.7 million proposal, which is being considered by the
Scottish Executive, would see a campaign to drive back the North
American greys with a targeted culling programme.
It is estimated that Scotland's population of 121,000 red squirrels,
which represents about 75 per cent of all those in the UK, will be
gone in 50 to 100 years if action is not taken to deal with their
larger rivals, which carry a disease fatal only to the reds and
generally out-compete them for food.
SNH has drawn up four options to save the red species and is
recommending a limited programme of control of the greys, along with
measures to help the reds survive. It is hoped this will help preserve
red numbers while a vaccine for the deadly squirrelpox is developed.
There are about 250,000 greys in Scotland. They dominate the Central
Belt but are also moving into the Borders and Dumfriesshire from
England along the M6/M74 corridor.
Their numbers stretch as far north as Pitlochry and there is also a
pocket in Aberdeenshire, where the greys have been moving out along
the Don and Dee.
SNH officials said one of the aims of the targeted cull, which
involves live trapping followed by a "humane" death, would be to push
the greys back to the edge of Aberdeen over the next five years.
This strategy would also be used in Argyll, north Perthshire and
southern Scotland.
Animals which are caught will be shot or put into a sack and then hit
with a blunt object on the right part of the head.
Other recommendations in the plan include identifying and establishing
20 large "stronghold" areas for reds, improving the woodland habitat
and researching a squirrelpox vaccine.
Dr Mairi Cole, of the species advisory office at SNH, said the red
squirrel would have a "much, much better chance" of holding its own
territory "primarily because we would be investing a huge amount more
in controlling the competitor".
"It's fairly well accepted we are not going to eradicate grey
squirrels so the best thing we can do is target the money and
resources we have in the right places," she said.
"The idea is to start at the edge of [grey squirrel territory] and
start pushing them back."
Experts do not believe red and grey squirrels actually fight each
other. However, in addition to carrying the squirrelpox virus, the
greys are more efficient at claiming any available food supplies.
Dr Cole said while some people were not in favour of killing grey
squirrels, it was necessary if the reds were to be saved.
A spokesman for the Scottish Executive stressed that SNH and the
Forestry Commission were currently involved in red squirrel protection
work and the action plan, which was still to be considered, was
designed to feed into work on future priorities.
Murdo Fraser, MSP, who has called for a bounty to be offered on grey
squirrels, welcomed the action plan as "a step in the right
direction".
Andrew Kendall, of the European Squirrel Initiative, which advocates
the eradication of the grey squirrel, said a "red squirrel tsar"
should be appointed to lead the campaign.
PUTTING A PRICE ON PESTS' HEADS
THE plan to save the red squirrel would mean spending £30.73 for each
one in Scotland, based on an estimated population of 121,000.
This is comparatively cheap compared to the £250 per pigeon chick that
the Scottish Parliament considered spending to rehouse birds that
managed to avoid the buildings' anti-nest defences.
Trappers on North Uist were paid £20 for every hedgehog captured in
2004 as part of a programme designed to protect native wading birds.
The government offered a tax exemption on the reward, before a cull
was introduced.
On the Island of Canna, pest controllers eradicated about 10,000 rats
at a cost of about £50 each, again in an effort to save bird-life as
the rats were eating too many eggs.
But perhaps the most expensive animal protection programme took place
on the Western Isles to save eggs, chicks and adult birds of all kinds
- including crofters' hens - from the rampaging mink, which were
escapees from failed fur farms.
The five-year cull reportedly cost more than £3,100 per animal.
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