A WESTHILL conservationist is worried about the impact a new group of grey squirrels that have been spotted in an Aberdeenshire wood will have on the red squirrel population.
Approximately thirty red squirrels live in Carnie Woods, where they are given supplementary feeding and care by a group of local people.
However John Cook of Friends of Carnie Woods believes four or five grey squirrels are also living in the wo
ods and is concerned about the potential impact this may have.
Mr Cook said: "Carnie Woods is only the place I know where you are guaranteed of seeing a red squirrel. We think there are four or five grey squirrels and they have already taken over a number of the red squirrel dreys. I don't think there is any way that the reds and the greys can co-exist in Carnie. We have six feeding stations where we leave monkey nuts and sunflower seeds and the greys are a lot more aggressive and will keep the reds away from the food. The greys can also eat two or three times as much. They won't attack the reds but they will basically eat them out of house and home."
An Aberdeen City Council ranger met with the Friends of Carnie Wood in the past week to discuss the matter.
It was decided that no immediate action would be taken and the situation would instead be reassessed in the autumn.
Mr Cook hopes some way of safeguarding the red squirrels can be found.
He said: "In reality something should be done sooner rather than later because if we leave it until August or September then there is going to be twice as many greys as there is now.
"The ideal solution would be to catch and release the greys but you aren't allowed to do that. If you trap a grey squirrel you are supposed to put it down according to law – that is something that I couldn't do.
"One of the ideas that has been proposed is to set traps for the squirrels but I am not in favour of that as I hate the idea of dogs or even young people terrorising and frightening a squirrel that had been caught in a trap."
The spread of the grey squirrel has led to a decrease in the numbers of red squirrels across Britain. There is thought to be 121,000 reds in Scotland, accounting for 75% of Britain's red squirrel population.
Mr Cook added: "We have all seen television programmes where endangered species have been trapped and moved to a place of safety but that does not seem to be happening with the red squirrels. You could certainly be repopulating various areas and maybe start a few more places like Carnie Woods where the reds could get supplementary feeding and care. A lot of people talk about wanting to help the red squirrels but not enough people are willing to put their hands in their pockets to do so."
