Pete Brookes explains how grey squirrels came to be living in the UK – and why airgun hunters should be placing them under their crosshairs.
Maybe we have a lot to thank the grey squirrel for. It gives us an incentive to get out of our beds on cold early mornings and catch the splendour of first light, a justification to be about in woodland and the opportunity for us all to partake in a national conservation project by assisting in the control of a destructive invasive species.
That said, the term “invasive species” is potentially misleading when you think of how this small tree-dwelling mammal actually came to be on these shores. It is not that the grey squirrel scrambled onto beaches from longboats landed on the north coast, ransacking and burning red squirrel tree
villages to the ground along the way.
More so they were unwittingly deposited in this country as unwilling pets around the late1800s, brought across from their native North America. Without falling into the trap of judging history by our modern-day beliefs and ideology, you could say the only dumb animals involved in this ecological disaster were the human ones who thought it was a good idea at the time. So the grey did not cause the problem, we did, and it is therefore right thatas airgunners we get actively involved and assist where we can in their management and control.
As ethical and responsible shooters, if we are engaged in the lethal control of any animal then to protect our sport it is proper that w fully understand the reasoning of our actions. I am not saying we should always be sucked into the arena of social media, or spend time in a debate with self-opinionated opponents giving them the spotlight they crave. That would take up far too much of our valuable time when we should be outside with our rifles, but at least have it in your head the justification for what we do.
