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In defence of squirrels
• ONE of north London’s most popular and endearing ornithologists, Bill Oddie, has been rapped on the knuckles in the tabloids and on TV by Robin Page, the latest recruit to the anti-grey squirrel confederacy for advocating the feeding of grey squirrels with peanuts.
If Mr Page has his way the air will soon be rent asunder with the sound of double-barrelled shotguns discharging their buckshot on grey squirrels.
The campaign against grey squirrels is gathering pace, fuelled by misconceptions and misinformation. I live on the periphery of a verdant park and can find no evidence that grey squirrels are stripping the bark of trees, even remotely to the extent claimed, or of the more ludicrous contention that they eat bird eggs.
As for the decline in the population of our native red squirrels, the National Geographic magazine has attributed the cause more to a deadly disease called parapoxvirus than to any other single factor.
Most of us would love to see the return of the red squirrels but their decline could be because they are intrinsically too wild by nature to cope with our increasing forays into their habitats. To my knowledge no study has ever been undertaken to determine how this factor effects the population.
In the absence of such a study it is only those in their late 90s who can speak with some authority on the effect urbanisation has had on our red squirrels.
On a jaunt through one of north London's leafy suburbs last month I came across a squirrel cub that had fallen from its dray.
I took it home and nursed it back to health and was amply rewarded for my efforts as it turned out to be a little bundle of joy, with fur softer than eiderdown, eager to tussle with my fingers. It cavorted just as playfully as a kitten or puppy would.
Alas, tragedy struck on the very eve of its release into the wild and it is no more. If we are to be called a nation of animal lovers then let not compassion for these lovable critters spring from a voice in the wilderness like mine.
Walter Roberts
Henfield Close, N19
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