Sure they do hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage (but a lot of ecological good too.). Does anyone actually want to exterminate them though? I think the British countryside would be a sadder place without them around, whereas if I could push the "eject all grey squirrels from the British Isles into outer space" button, I would do it with gusto.
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Grey squirrels 'do not harm woodland birds in England' (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter ChrisKten
- Start date
Sure they do hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage (but a lot of ecological good too.). Does anyone actually want to exterminate them though? I think the British countryside would be a sadder place without them around, whereas if I could push the "eject all grey squirrels from the British Isles into outer space" button, I would do it with gusto.
Adam W
Well-known member
I totally agree i was just making the point that even species that have been here hundreds of years are still heavily disliked and not really accepted by many.
billsbirding
Well-known member
Class! :-O Why aren't these shown to us kids nowadays? Maybe Tufty and his family were forced out of their houses by nasty Grey Squirrels
What about humans that are not native to this country should we kill them to and the birds that come over that are not native,blame the grey squirrels for destruction when humans are the biggest destroyers for chopping trees down and ruining the enviroment,why is it humans think they can destroy and kill what they dam well want,its not just our planet you know its the animals to,speaking of prince charles he is a hunter anyway and didn't want fox hunting banned,you people that hunt and kill animals are not genuine animal lovers just animal lovers of selected one's.
Adam W
Well-known member
Please dont feel you have the right to tell me what i am when you dont know anything about me.
But humans ARE native to this country. Calm down, read the thread, and you may even learn something.
karpman
Well-known member
Just exterminate the person who started the thread! "sorry chris:t:"
On reading this entire thread i have learnt 2 things i was miss using the word "cull" Thanks apodemus and grey squirrels make super pasties.
In all truth i would kind of miss seeing them about, Only because they have been there for all my life, I don't believe any specie is beyond eradication though, Musta thought the same about Buffalo and that was before the Ak47
karpman
On reading this entire thread i have learnt 2 things i was miss using the word "cull" Thanks apodemus and grey squirrels make super pasties.
In all truth i would kind of miss seeing them about, Only because they have been there for all my life, I don't believe any specie is beyond eradication though, Musta thought the same about Buffalo and that was before the Ak47
karpman
dantheman
Bah humbug
Surely you guys would make a great team (matching Chef hats and all) ... You would roll the pastry out ... pop the filling in ... the little guys would pass you the salt and pepper ... Give it a little shake and a twirl ...
You'd then fold the pastry back ... and a multitude of little paws would patter expertly away and seal the edges in a flourish of furry squirrelness.
... just like something out of Beatrix Potter ...
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Jacana
Will Jones
Humans are native, we introduced ourselves. This is another of my room 101 things, the mixing of conservation and politics, and the idea that wanting to exterminate an introduced species is in anyway similar to Nazism, ethinc cleansing or racism. We are talking about two different species, not races or even subspecies.
Kill 'em all I say (grey squirrels that is).
They have blood on their claws.
Their imapct on the red squirrel is well documented.
But what about their other crimes?
Hawfinch and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker populations suffer when there are high densitities of Grey Squirrels.
Fact.
Any doubters should have a read of the attached PDF from the RSPB:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/Predator Report_tcm9-177905.pdf
They have blood on their claws.
Their imapct on the red squirrel is well documented.
But what about their other crimes?
Hawfinch and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker populations suffer when there are high densitities of Grey Squirrels.
Fact.
Any doubters should have a read of the attached PDF from the RSPB:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/Predator Report_tcm9-177905.pdf
Pete Mella
Getting there...
OT, but some thought experiments for you, Angelika. I'm genuinely interested in your answers.
1. Due to human carelessness rats infest an isoloated colony of a rare breeding bird, and will wipe them out in two years if nothing's done. What do you do?
2. Your house is infested with cockroaches. What do you do?
3. American Mink start to inhabit a river where a fragile population of water voles live, what do you do?
4. There's an overpopulation of deer, and they're destroying their habitat by overgrazing, meaning without culling they'll destroy their habitat for themselves and for other creatures. What do you do?
I think animal rights detractors tend to (knowingly) misrepresent the idea of why conservationists get worked up over introduced species. It's not because we're "nature nazis" who hate anything foreign, like some kind of Daily Mail-reading BNP-voting nutjob does about human immigrants. And it's definitely not for any bloodlust. It's because the ecosystem is fragile. Introduce a new organism into that by human error and it can have dire consequences for the balance of nature. Sometimes they don't seem to cause any real problems and no-one gets too worked up about them (I don't think anyone is calling for an extermination of mandarin ducks, for example), while other times they're completely disasterous (Japanese knotweed). And it's the duty of humans to undo their mistakes.
Yes the worst culprit of environmental damage is of course mankind. When introduced species run havoc it is of course the fault of the humans that released them and not the animals themselves. But therefore it is human duty to right their own wrongs and remove those species. If you can only see this through anthropomorphic eyes as "condeming an animal to death that hasn't committed a crime" then I can understand you don't really see this. But I've a feeling if you believe the killing of one squirrel/mink/signal crayfish(?!) is inherently evil, and you'd rather condemn British wildlife to a more indirect death because of this, you'll never see eye to eye with many people on here.
On a side note, I wonder what the British countryside would be like today if coypu and muskrat hadn't been purposefully eradicated?
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Pete Mella
Getting there...
One of these has just been opened!!!!
Seriously this has been discussed on a number of threads, and it's never pretty...Attachments
Im a dog and cat owner my cats only go as far as the garden and i would never let them venture out and kill wildlife,i have a dog to that i take on the fields and dispose of his mess,these people who moan about the grey squirrels are probably owners of pets that chase and disturb or kill wildlife and let there dogs crap everywhere.And as for culling of any animals im against it there is no need for it humans breed and die so do animals that is what keeps numbers down from over populating.
Pete Mella
Getting there...
You didn't answer my questions in full, but do I take it that...
1. You'd let the rare bird colony die because killing rats is wrong.
2. You'd live with the cockroaches because killing cockroaches is wrong.
3. You'd let the water voles die out because killing mink is wrong.
4. You'd let the deer destroy the local habitat, and ultimately their own population, because killing deer is wrong.
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I say to all the above questions is let nature take its course and humans butt out,but know they wont because there will be nothing for them to cull,the animals are here now because of us so let them get on with it you cant kill all of them as they will keep breeding and the less there is cause of culling the survivors will be stronger because there will be more food spare,so really at the end of the day there is nothing you can do but let the wildlife get on with it.
Pete Mella
Getting there...
I really hope you don't get any cockroaches then!
