Employment opportunity

[Double D]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/eart...rrel-cull.html

Hummm......

[ab_bentley]

Envious. Seriously.


Adam

[sicero]

Along those same lines.

A woods I have bow hunted ( squirrel watching )for near 40 years
is being over run with little red squirrells {bummers)
Not near as many fox squirrel sighting.

I think I need to take the boys and shotgun as many as possible
in season or out.
Ohio used to allow shooting reds all year. Alass,no more. Kenny

[LT17]

They used to pay a bounty on Grey Squirrel tails here. I think it was sixpence before they made money metric. To be honest I dont think a cull on Grey Squirrels is going to achieve very much. The native Red Squirrel is unlikely to come back and I have never seen one in fifty odd years of outdoor pursuits. They still survive in a few Grey free zones, but eliminating Greys is about as likely as eliminating the other blight of urban areas feral pigeons and Herring Gulls. They tried to introduce a cull of badgers in limited areas to reduce tuberculosis infections in cattle and the bunny huggers went ballistic.

With that said there have been successes in bringing wildlife back from the brink. In my area we now have Buzzards, these are not what they call buzzards in the US, they are more akin to the Red Tail Hawks. When I grew up in the sixties the only place you see them would be the West Country, Wales and Scotland. The same applies to Peregrine Falcons and Red Kites.

How much of this is due to the decline in gamekeepers shooting them and what effect the removal of DDT has had I cant say, but as a kid I spent every day outdoors and we never saw what are now common birds like Sparrowhawks so in that respect things have improved markedly.

[Daryl]

The bunny huggers are calling the grey squirrels indiginous now, surprised they haven't yet waved the Endangered Species flag - might be coming. The one film I watched some time ago, noted they were introduced - I suspect, from NA stock.
The greys are good eating, btw.

[ab_bentley]

Originally Posted by LT17

The native Red Squirrel is unlikely to come back and I have never seen one in fifty odd years of outdoor pursuits. .

In the woods I hunt, we have had a strict regimen of only Greys for the last few years. Our average per season on this spot Talley's into the mid 100's between two shooters. This year I have seen more Reds (fox) than in the prior three years combined. Culling a species can work wonders.


Adam

[kenbro]

UK keepered shoots have year round squirrel culling (Trap/Shoot/Poison) yet the tree rats still thrive.
Ken.

[Alan in GA]

...sounds like you need more falcons and hawks.

[MarinePMI]

Or more ammo...

[Lead belly]

We are totally infested with grey squirrel here in east kentucky. One old gentlemen that lives down the road from me, told me he had killed a hundred and fifty this year. Most of those were on my property. This was only a dent in the population. Bet I could go out and take twenty today if I wanted. We have a strong population of hawks, falcons, and bobcat that take there share of squirrel as well. They do make a fine meal. Squirrel gravy is one of the better meals I've had.