The Reds Make A Comeback.

[Canary42]

Good news from Scotland, the Reds are making a comeback, thanks to an unexpected ally.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p032j6wk

[Tilly2]

Canary the clip won't play on my tablet. Can you tell me what its about, please?

[sandyRoe]

Red Squirrels.
They're making a bit of a recovery in Ireland, too. Apparently the greys aren't as good at escaping predators, particularly Pine Martins.

[Gavmacp]

Tilly,
My wife was talking about this last night. From what I remember it was due to the pine Martin taking grey squirrels.

[Svejk]

That's nice. Where do they take them?

[Gavmacp]

In Scotland usually down the pub!

[Svejk]

;o)

[Tilly2]

Thank you. That is good news.

[Chipchopper]

I saw some documentary footage recently and its thought that the grey's can't easily escape the pine martens, like the reds can. Reds being more nimble and agile can get out to the finer branches, where the grey's and martens would fear to tread.
Water appears to be a good natural barrier too, apparently the grey squirrels in Ireland had not figured out haw to get across the Shannon River.

[Canary42]

Ooops, sorry Tilly I missed your question. Basically it's as several people have now responded, the red squirrel is far better at escaping from the Pine Martens which prey on squirrels. Pine Marten populations are increasing so this would appear to be in the Red's interests.

The report is based on statistics (where Pine Martens increase, Greys decline, Reds don't) and the "predation" explanation is only a theory at present, more research is needed to determine if this is the right explanation.

The point was made that Reds have co-existed with PMs for eons and their ability to escape has evolved accordingly, whereas imported Greys have never encounted such predation and have therefore not evolved to counter it.