Red squirrels have much to fear, but not climate change
Fans of Beatrix Potter’s Squirrel Nutkin may be heartened to know that red squirrels appear to be resilient to climate change in the UK and Europe. The squirrels live in forests across a wide area of Europe including Spain, Italy, northern Greece, Scandinavia and parts of western Russia, and that broad distribution indicates that they can live in a range of climates.
Scientists at Bournemouth University have studied climate models to see how the squirrels may survive in the future. And the results were encouraging, showing that increasing temperatures and lack of rainfall may not have a direct impact on them.
But that is only one ray of hope in a largely bleak picture. Habitat loss, food scarcity and disease have had a far larger impact on the species, which has almost been wiped out in England and Wales where it is now confined to a few isolated areas. And after years of steep decline in the UK an estimated 140,000 red squirrels survive, largely in Scotland, compared with about 2.5 million grey squirrels. And so the reds are now classified as endangered in the UK.
The red squirrels are native to Britain and had a free run of the country for 10,000 years since the end of the last Ice Age. But their big downfall was the introduction of grey squirrels from the US in the 19th century, when the larger and heavier greys outcompeted the reds for food and habitats, and also spread squirrelpox, a virulent disease that is fatal for red squirrels.
Alyson Buchanan, of Bournemouth University, said: “We can see that red squirrel populations are not directly affected by current climate patterns in the models. Other factors such as habitat, food availability, disease and competing species appear to matter more and underline the need to maintain positive conservation efforts for this well-loved species. In the south of the UK, the Isle of Wight is an especially important haven for the species, as isolation from the mainland protects red squirrels from grey squirrels.”