Talk:Eastern Gray Squirrel
From Academic Kids
I've changed the picture on this page, because the one we had looked more like a Fox Squirrel. I have also removed a whole lot of links, that were either unnecessary or frankly unhelpful - I think it's overdoing things to link from a page like this to the forks of trees or the exterior walls of homes. seglea 04:16, 4 May 2004 (UTC)
"At the turn of the 20th century it was introduced into South Africa and England, spreading across the latter and leading to a reduction in the population of the native Red Squirrel in most parts of England and Wales."
This has always bugged me. How did grey squirrels manage to get rid of most of the red ones? Or is this just a misconception? -- Smjg 12:21, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)
- No, It's very likely to be the true scenario. It seems it's mostly due to competition for resources, with the larger, stronger greys winning a larger share of the available food. Also in there is a bit of biological warfare - the greys are more resistant to a disease that kills many reds (the greys are carriers) and a bit of adaptability on the part of the greys - reds simply aren’t as at home in the city parks the greys thrive in - so habitation loss hits the reds harder.
- http://www.wildlifetrust.org.uk/durham/RedAlert/RedAlert.html gives quite a good summary of all this. -- sannse (talk) 19:12, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)
- Just looked at it. But it still amazes me how one little species, of which there can't have been millions to start with, can have managed to virtually wipe out another, closely related species. I suppose that, if only there were sufficient food and habitats that appeal to only the red ones, the two could happily coexist. And if only someone set up an anti-parapox immunisation programme.... -- Smjg 17:20, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)
- If you have access to the technical biological literature, look up research papers by the Belgian ecologist L. A. Wauters, who has documented in depressing detail the impact of the greys on the red squirrels' fitness, in both Britain and Italy. I'll add an example reference to the page in a tick. seglea 19:41, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)
- Albino (white) squirrels are also fairly common in Westerville, Ohio (a suburb of Columbus), especially on the campus of Otterbein University in Westerville.
