Save Our Reds Tells Ministers 75,000 Back Red Squirrels

A Save Our Reds petition urging urgent action for red squirrels has attracted more than 75,000 signatures as the species edges closer to extinction in England. The campaign says the animal still clings on across Cumbria, Northumberland and the North Pennines, but warns it could disappear within 25 years without a joined-up national plan.

Marie Carter-Robb and Save Our Reds

Marie Carter-Robb, founder of the Save Our Reds campaign, said: "We have a series of urgent actions that need to be brought together into one joined-up national plan." She also said: "The map is shocking. It makes the reality impossible to ignore."

The campaign says only 120,000 to 160,000 red squirrels remain, with as few as 15,000 in England. Carter-Robb said: "This is not theoretical, without action we will lose our red squirrels."

Grey Squirrels From 1876

Natural England said grey squirrels were introduced from the USA and Canada from 1876. It said grey squirrels spread squirrelpox virus, which is fatal to red squirrels only, and the campaign says grey squirrels are a central threat alongside habitat loss and weak enforcement of protections.

Save Our Reds is calling for a national plan to humanely manage grey squirrel populations, urgent investment in squirrelpox vaccine development, support for fertility control research and deployment, and protection and enforcement of red squirrel habitat. Carter-Robb said: "The urgent actions that need to be brought together are fragmented and we are simply managing decline."

Defra and Red Squirrel Protection

Defra said the government was protecting endangered red squirrels by tackling the threat of non-native grey squirrels. Carter-Robb said: "We need government, conservation bodies, landowners, scientists and campaigners around the same table. The tools exist or are being developed."

She added: "What is missing is coordination, funding and urgency." With more than 75,000 people behind the petition, the immediate pressure is on ministers to turn the campaign's list of actions into a single plan that can be carried out across the few areas where red squirrels still survive.