It appears as though not even the inhabitants of the remote English countryside are free from the clutches of those seeking to limit the growth of the world’s population. According to recent reports from the BBC Online News Network, there is a new audience being targeted for the use of the contraceptive pill in the United Kingdom. For once, the latest offenders threatening to “overpopulate and destroy” Mother Earth are not the typically-targeted young lads and lasses entering their reproductive years. No, the latest threat to nature’s delicate balance comes from a member of her own wild kingdom: the grey squirrel.
The trouble all began 130 years ago when grey squirrels were introduced into England. The hearty North American breed quickly began to establish itself upon arrival. The grey squirrel was stronger, made more efficient use of the available food resources and produced more offspring than the native red squirrel. Another contributing factor leading to the gradual decline in the red squirrel population was that the grey squirrel was a carrier of the parapox virus, a virus to which they are immune but which is often fatal to red squirrels.
Current estimates place the grey squirrel population close to 2.5 million throughout England, Wales and central Scotland. whereas the red squirrels numbers have dwindled down to around a mere 150,000, accounting for a 75% decline in the overall red squirrel population in just 32 short years. As a result of these decreasing numbers, the question was raised: How can we save the red squirrel population from extinction? The previous methods of trapping and poisoning the members of the abundant grey squirrel population was deemed undesirable as a permanent solution to the problem, so scientists decided that the best way to control grey squirrel numbers was to put them on the pill! As bizarre as it may sound, trials have already been underway for a year.
The squirrels are put on birth control in one of two ways. The first way consists of trapping and injecting the squirrels with a sperm based vaccine. For squirrels clever enough to elude the traps, food tainted with the same vaccine is placed in areas where grey squirrels normally gather their food. It is hoped that the contraceptive vaccine used in both the injections, and tasty food morsels left on the forest floor, will create an immune reaction in the squirrel’s reproductive organs, which will render the females infertile. Tests are carried out one month after the digestion or injection of the vaccine, and blood samples are analyzed for signs of pregnancy. If the squirrels are found to be infertile, scientists consider themselves one step closer to reducing the overall grey squirrel population, enhancing survival and revival chances of the red squirrel.
As pesky as the grey squirrel population may be to the natives, not everyone is enchanted with the idea of placing the poor little critter on birth control. A spokesperson for the charity Animal Aid calls the idea of using the contraceptive vaccine a “racial cleansing of nature.” Harry Pepper of the Forestry’s Commission’s Alice Holt Research Centre however is not deterred by statements that the procedure is questionable or that it is directly “altering the balance of nature.” He states that “if this pays off, it could protect trees and red squirrels without large numbers of greys having to be killed.” Advocates of this procedure continue to see the move as the perfect, most environmentally friendly, solution to reducing the number of grey squirrels in England. They also state that this action will also protect forests in the future to which the thriving squirrel population has supposedly done millions of pounds of damage.
If the outcome of the squirrel sterilization campaign proves to be unsuccessful, those concerned with this failure can rest in the comfort of knowing that all hope is not lost. The BBC Online News Network in the same article reported that scientists in Belgium have bred what are being dubbed “super squirrels” red squirrels that are not susceptible to the parapox virus. If the genetically altered red squirrels also prove to be unsuccessful in reclaiming their territory from the grey intruders, perhaps someone will suggest putting the red squirrels facing extinction on fertility enhancing drugs — nuttier things have happened…
Tracy Trunk is PRI’s Development Coordinator.
