Pine Martins kill grey squirrels but not Red.

norseman · #1 07-10-2016, 07:15 PM

It has come to light that the pine martins are a natural predator on the grey squirrel but not the red which is more agile and faster. So, a native species killing off an alien import - Result !

#2 08-10-2016, 05:41 PM

Hello norseman,

Quote:

Originally Posted by norseman

It has come to light that the pine martins are a natural predator on the grey squirrel but not the red which is more agile and faster. So, a native species killing off an alien import - Result !

Interesting. There are articles on this. These Pine Martens are doing the job without firing a single shot.

Blessed be,
Lepus

Tobi · #3 10-10-2016, 01:15 AM

The greatest predators of grey squirrels on my lane are cars. So many squirrels killed by vehicles recently. Food for the crows and Jackdaws, and it will help them get strong for the winter.
Poor squirrels. But that is how it goes.

Makoiyi · #4 10-10-2016, 06:52 AM

They were reintroduced here after being wiped out by humans to cull the Grey Squirrel population and have been pretty successful.

Unfortunately though due to the flooding here last winter they moved to higher land. And despite chook houses I lost nearly half my rare breed chickens to them. They even broke wooden doors to get in to the Chook houses and climbed brick stable walls to get to the chooks at night.

Now the Chook houses have had to be rebuilt like fort Knox and they can no longer be totally free range. I've had to fence off large pens for them but at least there safe.

The majority of Pine Martens were trapped by the National parks and released back into areas that had high populations of Grey Squirrels still so hopefully this winter my Chooks will be safe and the Pine Martens will be doing there thing in an area that needs there help.

Seem's I wasn't the only person that had this problem with them which has proven that they have re populated this country far more than was thought, but the cost for me has run into thousands with having to build new chicken coops and building n fencing large runs. That's not including the lost income as I breed these chooks and sell the eggs to other breeders of rare breeds to off set the Keep costs of the chooks.