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Posted: 04-08-2013 19:42 Post subject:

In my role as this outfit's self-confessed red-squirrel-obsessive: report herewith, from my latest foray on the track of the elusive quasi-cryptid.

In the course of a recent brief stay in the south of England, my brother and I took a quick trip to Poole and got the ferry over to Brownsea Island -- famed lesser counterpart of the Isle of Wight, as joint last refuges for red squirrels in southern Britain. Brownsea measures about a mile-and-a-quarter by half-a-mile, the majority of the island being wooded: is estimated to host a population of about 200 red squirrels (no greys -- they can't get across the water).

This was my third visit to the island. Re the previous two: on the first, no squirrels seen; on the second, a couple of good sightings. Various conclusions could be drawn from those two experiences ! This recent third visit, leads to the general feeling that two hundred members of a shy species can get quite effectively lost on a largely-wooded island of the size indicated above -- encountering them, not the "shooting-fish-in-a-barrel" exercise that one might imagine. I feel that basically, we were very lucky -- especially as our visit had to be brief: about two hours, in the "lunchtime" window when wildlife is generally rather quiescent. We took a walk round the island, on the plentiful trails which traverse it. At one point in thick woodland, my brother -- all honour to him for his woodcraft -- noticed a small pine-cone segment falling on his head. He put two and two together, looked up, and there was, up in the top of a pine tree, a red squirrel -- not visible with the greatest of clarity, but definitely there, and watchable for about a minute.

Brownsea Island seems, incidentally, a wonderful haven of tranquility, amazing for wildlife far above-and-beyond red squirrels -- the island comprises various habitats.

Concerning British red squirrels and islands: the thought occurred to me recently, what's the picture squirrel-wise with the Isle of Man? -- difficult for sure, for grey squirrels to get to. Googling the matter, revealed that Man has never had any native squirrels of any kind.

The search engine further revealed that in recent years, conservationists have suggested introducing red squirrels to the Isle of Man, where they might flourish and multiply, beyond the reach of their out-competing grey cousins. One understands that the issue was debated in the Manx parliament; which vetoed the move, on both economic and environmental grounds: Manx naturalists had expressed the view that bringing in squirrels of whatever colour, could have a detrimental effect on -- broadest terms -- "what establishedly lives on the island". With the way it seems to be with introduction of exotic species, that "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong" -- I have to feel that the people who are cautious about this thing, and say "don't do it", are probably right.