Deadly virus threatens squirrels in a nature reserve on the Lancashire coast. The Guardian

[WD-40]

Protected in the past from their grey cousins, indigenous squirrels flourished in a nature reserve on the Lancashire coast. Now a deadly virus threatens to wipe them out

The stretch of sandy coastline around Formby in Lancashire has long been popular with Premiership footballers from nearby Liverpool and from Manchester. But football stars are not Formby's most famous residents. That honour goes to the red squirrels that have scampered for decades in the pine forest between the town's wide streets and the sand dunes that protect them from the sea.

Some 360,000 people visit the National Trust reserve there each year, and most go home happy to have seen a red squirrel. For decades, Formby, and the surrounding borough of Sefton, has had the highest density of red squirrels in England and, until recently, it was not unusual to see groups of 20 or 30 animals together.

But visit Formby now and the squirrels are missing. A survey planned for next month is expected to confirm that a deadly virus has swept through the area, sending the red squirrel population crashing to such low levels that it may never recover. Hundreds of the animals are feared to have died, and many more are not expected to make it through the winter. According to Andrew Brockbank, the National Trust property manager who has worked at Formby for 11 years, the situation is "very bleak".

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[Chocky]

This is not good

[Merlin]

This is certainly not good.....in fact dire and makes for depressing reading.


Pete.