Lake District put on black squirrel alert (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Lake District put on black squirrel alert

2:40pm Saturday 11th February 2012 in News By Scott Kirk, Reporter

A WARNING that black squirrels will spread to Cum-bria has come from a senior wildlife officer.

There are fears that it will become dominant – leading to displacement of grey and declining red populations.

There are believed to be 25,000 black squirrels in this country, with most being found in East Anglia.

There have been sightings in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire and they have also been spotted across the country.

So far none has been seen in Cumbria but David Harpley, conservation manager at Cumbria Wildlife Trust, said: “It will probably get here at some stage.

“The blacks seem to have some sort of genetic advantage but I don’t think anyone knows what it is.”

The nearest sighting to Cumbria was between Tam-brook and Marshaw, to the east of junction 33 of the M6, according to experts at the Black Squirrel Project based at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.

Black squirrels are exactly the same as greys in every way bar their colour, and are a sub-group of the grey.

Scientists are currently researching why blacks seem to be so successful.

They compete with greys for food and when the two species mate, the black gene seems to be dominant.

Cumbria is one of the few remaining strongholds of the red squirrel, which has declined to just 120,000 animals nationwide.

Greys and blacks pass on a deadly disease to the reds called squirrelpox, which causes lesions to develop on the skin and around the eyes.

To record any sightings of the black squirrel or to find out more, go to www.black-squirrelproject.org