Table of Contents 1.

My first encounter with a Red squirrel now seems many years ago. At the time, working for BBC Television in Plymouth, I was filming and presenting news items featuring wildlife and environment issues for the regional news programme. When approached by the head of General Features, I was asked to come up with ideas for a half hour documentary. Choosing to focus on the rarest, most endangered wild plants and animals was probably not the easiest option.

Phone bashing and further research led me to a small island in Poole Harbour, a sheltered bay on the south coast. This was one of only a few locations where Red squirrels still lived wild in England. Early morning the day dawned clear and still. Just a few paces away, a red brown bushy tail twitched at me from a conifer tree. The cute tufted ears and quizzical grin vanished behind the trunk, only to reappear a few seconds later on the ground. An endearing little creature, obviously unsure of me sitting on the ground or perhaps it was my large camera and tripod. Pretending I was not interested in its jerky approach towards some fallen pine cones, seemed to work. Once found the squirrel relaxed, deftly consuming breakfast, handling its food with all the skill of a professional juggler, extracting and eating a feast of seeds.

Apart from a few colonies on English islands, Red squirrels are having a tough time on the mainland. Larger Grey American imports, first released here in the late 1870s, also introduced a virulent disease. While the Greys appeared to have natural immunity, the Reds quickly succumbed. But today new initiatives to control Grey squirrel numbers in Devon and elsewhere, have started by releasing a natural predator. The equally agile Pine Marten appears to be gaining ground, literally in leaps and bounds.

 

Andrew Cooper