Hope as Formby Red squirrel population rises

Conservationists are hopeful the Formby red squirrel population is bouncing back from the verge of extinction.

The dwindling red breed have survived a savage 85% decline to between 100 and 150 since 2006.

Now experts report that breeding season is proving successful and are hopeful to see a surge in numbers in the coming months.

The decline of red squirrels has been a result of the growing population of grey squirrels, who carry a fatal virus 'squirrel pox', which is lethal to red squirrels.

The controversial culling of grey squirrels will continue until experts are happy a balance has been secured.

A control zone previously neighbouring the Formby Point reserve around Formby has more than doubled to take in St Helens, Kirkby, Ormskirk, Burscough and Tarleton.

Joshua Perry, of the Red Squirrel Survival Trust, said: "Until now all has appeared doom and gloom – but at last the reds are fighting back.

"For the first time we are seeing not just a stabilisation in their population, but the signs of growth."

Key factors include a good winter which has increased the stock of squirrel food, and the end of a pox which devastated them in 2007-08.

But the chief factor has been the more widespread culling of rival "rats with good PR" greys, which has not met with universal approval from conservationists.

"We know that this has been a controversial issue," Mr Perry said, "but there is now general public acceptance that for the reds to survive the greys have to be controlled.

"We take no delight in culling animals, but the greys are vermin, rats with good PR, and removing them from reds' habitats is the only way."

Mr Perry stressed that wardens who carry out the culling only do so when they have consulted local landowners and residents.

Wildlife experts said the population of the rare species in Formby and Ainsdale pine woods had crashed due to an epidemic of squirrel pox, which swept the area in the past two years.

While the virus does not harm grey squirrels, it is fatal to reds.

The smaller reds are the only native squirrels in Britain. The greys were imported from America.

They outbreed reds and eat up food supplies and habitats which the reds need to survive.

Numbers of reds in Merseyside had shrunk to 40% of the population's normal size by spring in 2008 and to 20% by early last autumn.

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