[Chilliman]

to my back garden...why never a red.

[Markulous]

Originally Posted by Chilliman

to my back garden...why never a red

'Cos they've all been driven out by the greys (or died from the virus that greys carry). You'll just have to make do with a 'Grey Squirrel on a Red Fence'

There's always red spray paint...............

Nice itchy scratchy shot, BTW!

[Lew]

It is a nice one. Are your greys a transplant from here? We have red squirrels here, but they have no ear tufts and are rather larger than greys. I find your reds very attractive.

[Chris H]

Yes the Grey squirell was artificially introduced and has almost wiped out the native red squirell.

There are a few pockets of reds left but not many. I like my little grey friends who come along to raid the sunflower seeds from my feeders

[Markulous]

Yeah, after decades of debate as to whether the Grey has or hasn't impacted the Red, there's now pretty much agreement that it's tended to drive out our smaller native Red. Added to which there's a virus that Greys carry but kills Reds (which is what wiped out 80% of the colony at Formby this year - tho', ironically, it's not strictly speaking a native being introduced from Eastern Europe, even if it is the same species!)

But the Grey is now under 'threat' from a new variant: a black sub-species which is larger and is in turn driving out the Grey (not that I've seen one - they're all grey here). Who knows, maybe in 10 years we'll be calling for the saving of the Grey (unlikely!)

Talking of American imports, another is the American Crayfish which is, surprise surprise, larger than our native and is driving them out!

We'll still take American $s though!