SEEING RED

from Dales Life Spring 2022

TO DINE FOR

Here in the Dales the red squirrel’s fortunes seem to be on the mend, Brian Pike reports

During the last couple of years, more and more Wensleydale residents have reported seeing one of our country’s rarest – and arguably cutest – native mammals.

Until the early 1900s the red squirrel was common in woodlands throughout the British Isles. Now it is rarely seen south of the Scottish border; in fact it’s officially an endangered species in England and Wales. But is it making a comeback at last?

A DUKE’S DODGY DECISION

The red squirrel’s catastrophic population crash during the 20th century was largely caused by one man: Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford. In 1890 Russell imported ten grey squirrels, a non-native species, from New Jersey. He released them in the grounds of his estate, Woburn Abbey.

The American newcomers quickly settled in, and their offspring were given to landowners in at least seven other locations. From these initial footholds grey squirrels spread rapidly, displacing the once thriving native population of reds.

Despite the accusations made against them, grey squirrels aren’t actively aggressive towards red squirrels. One reason for their current success is that they are bigger than reds, eat more, and outcompete their cousins for scarce resources in Britain’s dwindling ancient woods and forests.

The other reason greys have displaced reds is that they are inadvertent carriers of a virus to which they themselves are immune but which is fatal to reds – although there are encouraging signs that some red squirrel populations are developing a degree of resistance to the virus.

The red squirrels that have been spotted visiting garden bird feeders in Hawes, Bainbridge, Askrigg, Aysgarth and elsewhere in Upper Wensleydale have almost certainly spread from the Widdale Red Squirrel Reserve southwest of Hawes – now being massively expanded thanks to last year’s purchase by the Woodland Trust of 550 acres of adjoining land.

For those of us not lucky enough to have red squirrels popping into our gardens for a snack, a visit to Widdale offers an excellent chance to see this wildlife rarity. The reserve was badly damaged by last year’s Storm Arwen but has now reopened to the public following extensive clearance work.

For seasoned walkers, a good way to experience the reserve is to follow the Snaizeholme Red Squirrel Trail, a 9½-mile waymarked circular route starting at the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes. If you aren’t inclined to undertake a lengthy trek, the Little White Bus service from the Dales Countryside Museum will drop you off at Snaizeholme, enabling you to join the trail several miles closer to your ultimate destination.

The trail leads to a viewing area at the heart of the reserve where, with a bit of luck, red squirrels can be seen gorging themselves at feeders in a woodland clearing. Red squirrels have always been shyer than greys, but at the feeding area they have become relatively relaxed about visitors and you’ll have a good chance of getting close enough for a decent photograph.

GOING NUTS

Contrary to popular myth, squirrels don’t hibernate – they are active all year round. They live in nests, known as ‘dreys’, lodged in tree forks. These are constructed from twigs and lined with moss and grass. Dreys are also made in tree hollows or woodpecker holes. Although red squirrels nowadays are mainly confined to coniferous woodland, where grey squirrels find it harder to make a living, they are equally at home in broadleaved or mixed woodland. Their preferred foods are the seeds they strip from pine cones, along with hazelnuts, beech nuts and chestnuts. They also eat buds, shoots, flowers, berries and fungi, especially when other food is scarce.

In autumn, when their favourite foods are plentiful, both reds and greys bury caches of nuts and cones underground. And they’re clever; when they know other squirrels are watching they often create fake caches to baffle potential thieves!

Burying your bounty is one thing, but how do you find it again? It seems squirrels have an excellent mental map of their territory and commit the general locations of their little hoards of buried treasure to memory. They then use their acute sense of smell to pinpoint the precise spot. Even so, a significant proportion of caches don’t get retrieved for one reason or another. Not all is lost, though, because abandoned nuts and seeds buried by squirrels often sprout into young saplings, making squirrels an important factor in woodland regeneration.

Contrary to popular myth, squirrels don’t hibernate.

FRIEND OR FOE?

Red squirrels raise up to two litters of young a year, with two or three ‘kits’ per litter. If a young squirrel survives its first winter it will likely live between three and six years.

The main threats squirrels face are aerial predators like buzzards and goshawks, plus stoats, foxes and domestic cats. Pine martens – themselves rare, but also beginning to trickle back into North Yorkshire – will also take red squirrels. However it seems they find it far easier to catch grey squirrels.

In fact the presence of pine martens has a positive effect on red squirrel populations and a negative effect on grey squirrel populations. So can conserving pine martens go hand-in-hand with conserving red squirrels?

…when they know other squirrels are watching they often create fake caches to baffle potential thieves!

Unfortunately it’s far from certain that pine martens can be long-term allies in the fight to save red squirrels. During thousands of years of coexistence, red squirrels have become better at avoiding pine martens than greys. But evolution constantly throws up surprises. If the pine marten returns to Britain in greater numbers, grey squirrels may well evolve to adapt to the increasing threat, cancelling out the red squirrel’s current advantage in pine marten territory.

In short, there are no easy answers, and the red squirrel’s future in Britain still hangs in the balance. For information about the Snaizeholme Red Squirrel Trail visit the Yorkshire Dales National Park website, yorkshiredales.org.uk