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CONSERVATION
The Mystery of the Missing Squirrels — A Personal Investigation
How I tried to find the endangered red squirrels and discovered a dark truth
My wife and I recently visited our local red squirrel reserve at Formby, Merseyside. It’s supposedly one of the last strongholds of England’s endangered red squirrel population. I say ‘supposedly’ because, although I’ve visited the reserve on several occasions over the years, I’ve yet to see a squirrel there.
My wife tells me she’s seen them here many years ago and on our recent visit a lady from the Woodland Trust assured us that there are around 250–300 individuals in the area, but despite spending time scanning the trees, both with binoculars and our naked eyes, we saw not hide nor hair of any of them.
I searched online for more information about them. The reserve is a big tourist attraction in the area. One of the websites claimed that the squirrels are “accustomed to being fed and are very tame.”
I’ll have to take their word for it.
The squirrel pox outbreak and its consequences
We saw numerous feeding platforms in the trees but these were empty and falling into disrepair. The Woodland Trust lady told us…
