You might take pity on the creature above should you see him or her out and about not hibernating. Not only do they face the cold but they also are under threat from a government funded scheme to have them shot. Prizes are being awarded to gun clubs who shoot most of the alien grey squirrel according to a report in Wednesday’s Irish Times.
€6,500 is the total prize fund being offered to protect the native red squirrel by giving prizes to shooters who compete in the cull. 1,364 squirrells were killed, bushy tails presented and it works out about about €4.76 per head. No idea how much a dent does that make in the grey squirrel population or if any reds were killed in error. Arrangements are being put in place for a cull in 2010. No idea on how many trees were saved either. (For policy wonks – There is a government report on squirrels and management of the population but the link is not working at the moment.)
Jeez, for a moment I thought of a political cull, and that Cullen had replaced Clowen! On the topic of ‘they shoot squirrels don’t they’, you also know the Phoenix Park is shut periodically for the culling of deer.
They are invasive and considered to be vermin. It appears that they have more or less wiped out the territory for red squirrels east of the Shannon, and only for the fact that they haven’t managed to get across, the red squirrel would probably be facing certain exctintion. I think the object is to possibly prevent this from occuring and maybe “resettle” red squirrels back?
Cos poisoning would be better? Simply because they look cuddly doesn’t mean they’re not vermin. The native red squirrel is being pushed to extinction, the countryside isn’t some place designed by Walt Disney that’s meant to be nice to visit you know. People and others live there.
In many years past we had a similar situation with rabbits. The first port of call was a paid per skin followed by the introduction of myamotosis… not pretty but it did its job at the time.
My fear/ query/ worry is not that the grey squirrel is culled – but more the manner in which it is being done.
On one hand the Green Party is calling for the banning of hunt clubs – a club that hunts animals on horseback with dogs…. whilst on the other the forestry service is paying for [wo]men with guns to shoot animals. The difference is notable somewhat – but the end result of zero difference.
My second point is that – if it was the cull of squirrels in their entirety then I could understand the forestry service paying the fund on offer… but that is not the case. I am assuming the forestry service in this case would prefer its trees were damaged by a higher percentage of the red squirrels…?
The fact that the culling leaderboard also exists…. not impressed – although [i'm guessing] an admirable cost saving inititive
I’m also mildly surprised the Irish Times didnt finish with a foot note that this could be done cheaper across the border.
Interested to hear if the Green Party were aware of this at all.
Peter
Please don’t feed the grey squirrels, they’re not the native red squirrel, they’re pushing a rare native species to extinction and are not an endangered species themselves. If we act to protect endangered species (like the red squirrel), it doesn’t mean just not interfering with that species, it means acting to preserve them — and in this case that means eliminating a competing species that was artificially introduced to an ecosystem without any forethought.
The alternative is what’s happening to the deer population in Ireland at present – native red deer only exist now in a few isolated places, the non-native sika deer is the dominant species and has in fact bred out of control to the point where the herds are now too large for the land to support and the deer are starving as a result, so they’re now encroaching on human populated areas leading to an increased incidence of car accidents (and a car hitting a deer is often not a survivable incident for deer or driver), deer eating farmers crops and livestock feed, and so forth.
Mark you are involved in guns and gun clubs? What is the story on the competition and the leaderboard?
It’s so sad to hear about the gray squirrels. They’re doing the same thing in England, and it’s such a shame.
Peter, I think that some degree of squirrel activity is necessary for the eco-system and it would appear that when the red squirrel is put under pressure, it will not breed as often. Or so the wisdom of wiki-pedia tells me.
Not myself Maman, I’m a target shooter rather than a hunter. What I know of the scheme comes from the hunters and the parks rangers I know through modding the shooting.boards.ie hunting forum. The idea’s pretty simple – the Department doesn’t have the resources to try to control the gray squirrel population itself. After the 2007 squirrel population survey came out, showing the Grays were now in all 26 counties and the Reds were endangered (the Grays carry a disease the Reds have no immunity to) the NARGC (the body that represents hunters in Ireland) and the forestry service offered an incentive in the form of the competition and cash prizes to encourage the already ongoing culling of the gray squirrels.
yes its not the cull of the grey squirrel, or a bounty I find troublesome its making killing animals a competitive sport that’s unnecessary. something i thought everyone was moving away from.
hmm wonder if anyone eating them.
Waste not, want not:
http://www.bowhunting.net/susieq/squirrel.html
What have the Green Party ever done for us? // Jan 23, 2011 at 21:47
[...] up there reminds me of the competition organised under the Green Party tenure to shoot the grey [...]