Britain weighs bounty on destructive gray squirrels

LONDON – The British government should offer a bounty on the heads of gray squirrels, an imported pest that is threatening populations of its indigenous red cousins, a lawmaker said Thursday.

“Not only do they drive out red squirrels but they destroy trees and rob birds’ nests and in one case there was a case of rabies as a result of a gray squirrel biting a human,” Lord Livsey of the small centrist Liberal Democrat party said in the House of Lords.

“Will the government consider the setting up of a fund to save red squirrels and a pound ($1.80) … for every gray squirrel tail presented?” he asked.

The environment minister, Lord Whitty, said such a plan had operated in the 1950s “and actually the gray squirrel population went up quite dramatically in that period, so it wasn’t very effective.”

“Gray squirrels are frequently a pest. They are not a protected species and people can destroy them but the present focus must be on protecting those few remaining areas where we have a significant red squirrel population.”

The red squirrel is protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act, which prohibits any unauthorized killing, injuries, theft or sale of the creatures.

The Wildlife Trust says there are only 161,000 red squirrels in Britain, compared with 2.5 million gray squirrels.

Grays, native to North America, were introduced in Britain in 1876.