Red Squirrel England BAP Conservation Targets

In 1999, the Esme Kirby Snowdonia Trust launched a grey squirrel tail-bounty scheme and was immediately criticised for doing so. Below is the original BBC news report and although the North Wales Wildlife Trust made their objections clear, the views of the wider public were never canvassed. Eventually the bounty scheme faded and was abandoned, in part because of the death of Esme Kirby in October 1999, but also because there was a very low take up. We do not currently have any plans to reintroduce such a scheme but we would be interested to hear any views on the realtive pros and cons of bounty schemes.

BBC News Report Thursday, September 23, 1999

UK: Wales

Criticism of £1-a-tail squirrels bounty

Last of the Anglesey red squirrels
Red squirrel populations are under pressure from their grey cousins.

A Welsh wildlife trust has distanced itself from a conservation organisation's plan to pay a bounty for people to kill grey squirrels.

The red squirrels of Anglesey in north Wales are threatened by their grey cousins and the conservation group the Esme Kirby Trust has decided to revive bounties.

It is offering £1 per tail in an attempt to cut the grey squirrels' numbers.However, the North Wales Wildlife Trust said it disagreed with the bounty plan.

Morgan Parry, of the trust, said they agreed that grey squirrel numbers needed to be cut, but that a bounty was not the best way. "We are trying to work together with a lot of different organisations, including the Esme Kirby Trust. But we oppose the bounty quite strongly," he said.

"We are afraid people will kill, trap and shoot animals just for the money," he said. It is thought the grey squirrels have reached Anglesey either by swimming across the Menai Strait or using the road bridge.

Greys have either swum the Menai Strait or used the bridge to reach Anglesey

The larger and tougher grey squirrels have a different digestive system to the red ones. This enables them to eat food before it is ripe enough for the red squirrels to eat.

The Esme Kirby Trust is part of a wider "Anglesey Red Squirrel Project" which plans to make Anglesey "red squirrel country" again.

There are plans to supply a trap for the subsidised sum of £7 which they claim is much cheaper than can be bought elsewhere.

There is also a plan for red squirrels to be re-introduced to Holy Island off Anglesey where they would be free from any predatory grey squirrels.

The grey squirrel bounty was first introduced in 1932 by the Forestry Committee and was set at 2.5p per tail.

It was halted when World War Two began but then resumed in the 1950s under the direction of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.