Durhamjen you commented that "Squirrels are wildlife just as much as birds."
But we should not always say that any particular species of wild life should be allowed to continue to grow in numbers without ensuring that they are not damaging the populations of other species in the area.
When an animal toward the top of a particular food chain has no particular predators or just by force of numbers it can overwhelm the natural habitat and the food supply of other creatures in way that can cause serious damage to the population of other species.
There is a real problem when the wild life balance between species get out of control in terms of the balance of the predatory food chain
In a stable ecology there should be a health balance between all the predatory species.
There was an out of control hedgehog population (first introduced by farmers) in some islands in the Hebrides which was causing major problems with the ground nesting wader bird populations. These were culled or removed causing great controversy.
The problem was no there were no predators to control the hedgehog populations which were growing out of control and causing serious problems by eating the eggs of the ground nesting birds.
www.bbc.co.uk/nature/22093131
There are other introduced non native species which have damaged our native wild life in particular the introduction of grey squirrels has caused major damage to the numbers of our native red squirrels. Other species cause similar damage.
Grey Squirrels are culled in areas of the UK where they are trying to maintain populations of our native Red squirrels.
rsst.org.uk/our-work/northern-england/
(The red squirrel conservation trust.)
The UK has become much better in recent years at looking at issues like this to protect and manage our native wildlife. Homo Sapiens, having done a lot of damage over the centuries.
Nicola Sturgeon’s husband re-arrested
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