Shoot it or watch it??????

[2blackcat]

I'm with Tomtom
Must be better ways to control their population than by shooting them
Steralising would be an ideal way to go

Went to Scotland earlier in the year and hoped to see a Red ..... and I did! .... stuffed, in a glass case

Didn't see a Red Kite either. Even though the signs were up saying they were about

Think I must filter out the red in the spectrum

 

[RovingArcher]

Our Creator made room for all living creatures to live here with us, so I can't see killing off a species because they are doing what they have been designed to do by a much higher power than any man I know.

However, a need of food is a good reason to take the tree rats life and the grey gets big and fat and are very tasty, so I'd probably enjoy watching it until I could get a good, clean shot on it.

 

[pumbaa]

In our local rag a few years back , there was an artical about the grey squirrel .
Apparently they had been eating Fag buts and got themselves addictd to niccotine ! The artical was warning smokers not to show that they were carrying cigarretes with them as a couple of people had been mugged for their fags !!!
They did also suggest that they didnt drop the buts everywhere as this could only help .
True story
Pumbaa

 

[dtalbot]

I have enjoyed watching them, they are certainly adapt acrobats and quite amazing but for me it has to be a 'shoot it vote' as i would much rather see the reds in the woods.. somthing i have never seen.

I've been a bit luckier, seen 2 in the wild in my life, one of which was a bit of a cheat, it was known to be in a particular bit of woods at Kilhope mining museaum. (though a friend who went to Durham uni has lost count of the times she went looking for it at Kilhope without seeing it)

 

[dtalbot]

Our Creator made room for all living creatures to live here with us, so I can't see killing off a species because they are doing what they have been designed to do by a much higher power than any man I know.
.

Yep, and we messed up his plans bringing greys to this little island, lets put it back the way he intended!

 

[Polestar]

Like others, watch - shoot - eat. I remember the oak- woods being alive with reds when I was a kid (now sadly only greys), and also in the early 70's seeing dozens of mellanic (black) reds in Nutley (or is it Nutleigh?). Have also seen a family of albino (white) greys.
Like so many areas where man has tampered, I'm sure that nature would find a 'balance' (given time), but what else will be lost whilst waiting?
David

 

[Pappa]

I like watching greys (if only because there are no reds to see), but I also agree with the watch->kill->eat sentiment. Thanks Wolf for that great squirrel snare sketch. Is it legal to use snares like that on squirrels in the UK? If it is, I know of a troublesome pack of squirrels that might be gracing my dinner plate some time soon.

Pappa

 

[fa11en ange1]

I enjoy watching them and don't feel we should arbitrarily slaughter them for simply existing, when it is our own meddling fault they are there. That said though I would quite happily hunt them as a food resource as squirrel is mighty tasty

 

[falling rain]

Does the Grey Squirrel cause more harm than good. It has ousted the Red and shredds the bark off trees, but it also plants a lot of trees, and is fun to watch, so would you rather shoot it or do you get more pleasure watching it................Jon

My whippets usually kill them

 

[ilovemybed]

My whippets usually kill them

I assume that you have the landowner's permission? Don't want to get busted under the hunting with dogs act!

 

[Klenchblaize]

I feel sure the whippet was acting in self defence!



K

 

[Povarian]

Steralising would be an ideal way to go

Gotta agree - would you recommend boiling for 10 mins or auto-claving them?

 

[C_Claycomb]

Saw a great bumper sticker once....

Preserve Wildlife

Pickle a squirrel​

Shoot, skin, joint and eat.

Dry hide with hair for excellent fly tying material, or turn hide into very strong for its thickness raw-hide.

Not only do the little blighters make reforesting with hardwoods more difficult by stripping bark, but they carry a disease to which the reds are not immune.

 

[Goose]

Watch and shoot......Watch and shoot

 

[falling rain]

I assume that you have the landowner's permission? Don't want to get busted under the hunting with dogs act!

My dogs chase and catch rabbits and squirrels as is in their nature, and I do not actively go out intending to use them to hunt. As far as I know it would have to be proven I intended to deliberately go out with the intention of hunting to be a criminal offence.

I got the following from the DEFRA website

What is Hunting?
The Act makes clear that hunting with dogs includes engaging alone or participating with others in the pursuit of a wild mammal where a dog is used in that pursuit. Hunting should be understood in its ordinary English meaning, which includes searching for wild mammals, chasing them, or pursuing them with the intention of catching or killing them. Hunting is an intentional activity and there can be no such thing as unintentional hunting. Thus, if a dog runs off after a squirrel in the park, the person accompanying the dog would not be guilty of unlawful hunting (unless he or she then used the dog to hunt the squirrel). Equally, if dogs being used in drag-hunting were to run off after a fox, the drag-hunters would not be guilty of unlawful hunting (unless they then used the dogs to hunt the fox). This is unlikely to be a problem for genuine drag hunters, while pretence would be easy to detect. Suggestions that anyone is obliged to shoot any wild mammal that their dog accidentally flushes out are also entirely untrue.

 

[Buckshot]

Watch and shoot......Watch and shoot

Is that a quote from a falling plate shooter (or similar)

Shoot them for me. If people want to keep them in town parks then fine but in the countryside they're a problem - and a big one at that.

I was talking to someone the other week who said a study had been done on greys.
An area of farming land had been cleared of greys completely and maintained like that for while. Then all control stopped. How long do you think it took for the population to get up to pre control levels????


3 months - that's all. We're not talking about seeing the first one on the ground, this is back up to saturation levels. 3 months. Incredible.

 

[Klenchblaize]

Given we seem to have veered, just a tad from the original question, permit me please to further stray. At first I thought this was the perfect vehicle to rejoin the debate about hunting, as in it's US meaning, but I resisted, being a very new member who it might of been said had an 'agenda'. Similarly, I'm not convinced this is something Mr. Mears (this web site) is as comfortable with as perhaps we might imagine. The folowing observation therfore simply states my belief - through experience - that the one good thing we may attribute to the grey, other than they do indeed make a wonderful meal when cooked as some variation of Brunswick Stew, is that the shooting of them with aid of a .22 rimfire or air-powred rifle; the latter being far, far safer in most parts of the UK, is they offer a target that is the finest aid to improved off-hand marksmanship ever conceived by nature. Yes, I'm sure Mr. Flickertail would rather I did not promote his tree-roving attributes in this manner but I strongly suggest I speak the truth as anyone who has taken to an autumn-scented wood with a "squirrel rifle" will confirm. For that reason I hope we never quite manage to eradicate this delightful and hunter-important varmint!

Good hunting to those that do!

KLENCHBLAIZE
Ps: Does this therfore mean I'm content to both "watch" and "shoot"?!

 

[Goose]

Is that a quote from a falling plate shooter (or similar)

Shoot them for me. If people want to keep them in town parks then fine but in the countryside they're a problem - and a big one at that.

Squirrels will fall when hit!

Seriously though, around here they are about the only wild mammal(except rabbits) that most people have seen and in that way they are good, anything is better than nothing.
But they are a pest in places so they should be fair game, it would be difficult if not impossible to eradicate them, and they have few natural predators which is bad for the population as a whole,so we need to fill the gap!

 

[arctic hobo]

They do compete directly with Reds in deciduous woodlands which would have been part of the natural habitat of Reds before the greys were introduced.

As far as I am aware Red squirrels live in coniferous woodland... partly why there are more in Scotland than anywhere else in the UK.

 

[RovingArcher]

As far as I am aware Red squirrels live in coniferous woodland... partly why there are more in Scotland than anywhere else in the UK.

That has been my observation as well.