Pine marten and grey squirrel - there is only one outcome

[Tringa]

I don't know how to find a link for a video on Facebook, or if it is possible, so this links to the Facebook page. If this works it is, at the moment, the first video on the page from Causeway Photography.

A good record of behaviour.

Although the link says Login it seems to go straight to the page.

Dave

Facebook

www.facebook.com

 

[gramps]

Although the link says Login it seems to go straight to the page.

Not for me

 

[jakeblu]

Me neither

 

[Tringa]

Oddly enough the link in my first post doesn't work for me now.

Perhaps this one will work -

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=768136027287283

View: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=768136027287283&extid=QvILT6kLmXmCmdku


Dave

 

[gramps]

Hence the expression, 'don't get boxed in'!

 

[Yardbent]

nope

 

[Nod]

Talking to the squirrel keepers (reds) at Escot (one of the Wildwood centres), pine martens are too heavy to catch reds but the larger greys have problems escaping. Apparently, the use of martens is being considered as a control for the greys in areas where they and reds might co-exist.

 

[Tringa]

Talking to the squirrel keepers (reds) at Escot (one of the Wildwood centres), pine martens are too heavy to catch reds but the larger greys have problems escaping. Apparently, the use of martens is being considered as a control for the greys in areas where they and reds might co-exist.

That seems to be the conclusion arrived at in Ireland, where the video I posted came from. Along with red squirrels being lighter than greys(and clearly much lighter than pine martens) and therefore able to use much thinner branches for their escape from the martens, the reds spend less time on the ground than greys so are less vulnerable.

Dave

 

[Smadga]

Been a bit on the BBC news page about them favouring greys, amazing footage.

 

[Mr Badger]

Never mess with a mustelid!

Although, talking of mustelids, I believe it's a similar story with otters displacing non-native American mink from our watercourses, thus helping water vole populations to survive (mink have been a major predator of water voles over the last few decades). That's the thing with nature, over thousands of years things find a niche or go extinct. Upset that balance by introducing a non-native species and it can all go horribly wrong far too quickly for evolution to counter things.