Community Stories

Nature Watch, Your Flora and Fauna Photos and Stories

Omegafanman
Posts
4,648
Likes
17,606
Walrus Walrus
Wow is that common? I hate to say it but we have so many squirrels it’s not that no one cares about them I think we get annoyed at them raiding our bird feeders. We certainly do call or bring some animals we see wounded but we are more apt to ignore a squirrel, maybe we are cold hearted in my area.

You have to be careful with grey squirrels. I think if you take one in / save it in the UK then it is illegal to release it back. They are trying to get the numbers down. Also you need a permit to keep them I think..

The new Invasive Alien Species Order 2019 has made it illegal to release rescued grey squirrels back into the wild. We can still apply for a licence to keep them,
 
BLOW UP
Posts
1,313
Likes
1,673
Maybe
Walrus Walrus
Wow is that common? I hate to say it but we have so many squirrels it’s not that no one cares about them I think we get annoyed at them raiding our bird feeders. We certainly do call or bring some animals we see wounded but we are more apt to ignore a squirrel, maybe we are cold hearted in my area.
Well unfortunately in the London area, and in fact most of England the native Red squirrel is extinct, and this is down to the invasive American grey squirrel in the picture, but he was tiny, only a matter of weeks old, and couldn't have looked after himself; I just really couldn't leave him to be predated on.. and as he's an invasive species it was very difficult to find someone to care for him, so that's why I drove to South London to find him a carer. He lived here for a few days in a box in the bath and had regained his strength in that time, he had a really sweet nature, and I've got some videos of him playing and running up and down in the bath, and falling head-first into the dish of nut milk that I gave him.
 
BLOW UP
Posts
1,313
Likes
1,673
Waltesefalcon Waltesefalcon
Looks like y'all have what we call English Longhorn. Down here there is the Texas variety. Sadly I don't have a photo in the old phone of one with a good long set of horns.
20220902_111423.jpg 20221007_185951.jpg
It was actually a guess at Longhorn (??) but those enormous bovines you've listed almost look like ancient Aurochs which have been extinct since circa 1600s; despite this, the Nazis attempted to resurrect the Aurochs, I did some research on it some years ago, and I seem to remember it was Goering's idea or that he was championing project Taurus.
 
Waltesefalcon
Posts
3,457
Likes
9,377
The Texas long horn was brought to the America's by Spanish conquistadors beginning in the late 1400s. They were raised all throughout Mexico and some were set loose somehow, and by the 1700s there were wild herds in Texas. They are very hardy, long lived, and drought resistant, but despite that, the loss of range and ranchers becoming more interested in fattier types of beef cattle nearly led to their extinction in the early twentieth century. In 1927 Congress, wishing to preserve the breed, authorized a herd be started at the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge (where all my longhorn photos come from). By the mid twentieth century ranchers had begun introducing longhorn into their own stock with some good results, and others began raising them on their own. Originally coming from Spain these cattle are closely related to Iberian cattle and have some relation to African cattle.
 
140dave
Posts
1,831
Likes
9,087
Big fail at the docks, mammals are smart!
IMG_5638.jpeg IMG_5641.jpeg

fake dogs don’t scare sea lions is todays lesson learned
 
Walrus
Posts
9,888
Likes
47,163
BLOW UP BLOW UP
Maybe

Well unfortunately in the London area, and in fact most of England the native Red squirrel is extinct, and this is down to the invasive American grey squirrel in the picture, but he was tiny, only a matter of weeks old, and couldn't have looked after himself; I just really couldn't leave him to be predated on.. and as he's an invasive species it was very difficult to find someone to care for him, so that's why I drove to South London to find him a carer. He lived here for a few days in a box in the bath and had regained his strength in that time, he had a really sweet nature, and I've got some videos of him playing and running up and down in the bath, and falling head-first into the dish of nut milk that I gave him.
Wow interesting the amount of squirrels I see around is crazy in US forests. Apologies if our squirrels messes you up. We have some cool pure white and pure black ones that are rare to see. I’ll need to look up how the US squirrel invaded England. We have a big problem with Asian fish taking over a lot of our water ways changing the ecosystem.
Bugs to it’s amazing the damage an invasive foreign beetle can do to Forrest’s. Literally killing them. Sad to see but I guess man has been bringing species for rides for thousands of years, we can just do it a lot faster now.
 
BLOW UP
Posts
1,313
Likes
1,673
Walrus Walrus
Wow interesting the amount of squirrels I see around is crazy in US forests. Apologies if our squirrels messes you up. We have some cool pure white and pure black ones that are rare to see. I’ll need to look up how the US squirrel invaded England. We have a big problem with Asian fish taking over a lot of our water ways changing the ecosystem.
Bugs to it’s amazing the damage an invasive foreign beetle can do to Forrest’s. Literally killing them. Sad to see but I guess man has been bringing species for rides for thousands of years, we can just do it a lot faster now.
Too right.. they come over here.. steal our nuts.. Shag our little red Ones.. Truly Shocking
😁
 
BLOW UP
Posts
1,313
Likes
1,673
Walrus Walrus
Interesting read. So it may have started as “pets”. Gotta admit these pics of the red squirrel look much more pretty than our common squirrel
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articl...sh-battle-to-rid-itself-of-american-squirrels
26BF8BAB-9801-4297-9EE1-649117770041.jpeg
Actually, the red squirrels are really gorgeous, they're a lot smaller than the grey ones and far more timid..
Other than in the Highlands in Scotland I've never actually seen any red squirrels in England where I've lived nearly all of my life.. The grey ones are very charismatic but they do impact the environment significantly in England.

In terms of invasives, we have so very many.. This gives rise to the likes of Suella Braverman and Pretti Patel 😉
But seriously, we have Chinese crabs and American crayfish in nearly all of our rivers, and they are decimating native populations..

But I can't help loving some of the invasive species such as the Psittacula Parrots, it sounds completely ridiculous, but every single day, a massive flock of the brightest green parrots with vibrant red beaks fly through the garden, they go one way first thing in the morning and come back the other way, in the evening always about an hour before sunset, they're noisy as hell.. but I absolutely love them.. We now have millions of vibrant green parrots living here in London.

And to add to this I saw our resident Green Woodpecker (with a bright red head crest) in the garden today.. You can always hear when he's about to arrive because he's got such a loud distinctive laugh-like call..
Edited:
 
Walrus
Posts
9,888
Likes
47,163
BLOW UP BLOW UP
Had to rescue this little fella.. He had no energy and was going to be predated on
I had to drive him to the other side of London to get help for him:
48nQX058nykiiHx33IF2mg9AhViANSAF-mS4azYjB0DIaBcqBHVEX2BnzC0Ar9d-4min-a-XNx79sfHo4R8_N35AFLJxOAzTvAaDC1q95aG4tFPtMypW_ITjzDlnj9WmlhLy_olPwY6FLZK8Uj_4hArYEVb_IZ1ReWw0wgnFMpxNyxj2ngciJ0alVCJc0auTZe7VGMQEj6CZWDcpRGKoLrjMJ11W5JaKEp-ywDEh93mIZpUK-rNvLwBPOE7If08Zzkntg5ecbp7yoQlQXHceOzeQVyRnawZQV8LlozpITnBCOR6JMbBlHhm5Hilrdbi1Qs_UF-dOLSEPJsdav8B6WClq4Xa0GoNKoRGIJpEKHXI51Pe2efUpDarohfN8JsMrEMVc46ztTnMgoB40bVC8Fk7TbdEwA24yvlEemwNr62ty7FbiTOYt0FHIFz1datsx-udDtszHECAeTZUaZznrWc7ZbN55Xc1JoBwe1NYM7LRRW2rZYoNjRZgK8ADH20okFON08IOh2s-LFpZigUkR89Gla607rcnnfO-AW70gqt0Rw4vxIzIioawj7n5Cm1e7VWAPh591H-_CgsVvsrdJyx9yEb37oSs3C2EvduOimhh5gJsoT5sNU8prUYE8BQHT4nHqBBLOAQFT-E-SxkXMaOvwiHAeKHE7bOPNcw7vWXFtwUz0TY6OCHSqrxPF4UQFCX1A9BV5IjZdffQSoxO_snjE6cq6a7qmhF0XAl8wb7e5Hbm3xXsbkESfGqx2cimGv2Lp6bb6K7AaDkXtGkw1WDWDFvmSCqMOFHxTuVUYgvuOatu1LtaVp_f_AqSx-5WeRhsf0EHLxWL5SHgrTofMmTwN6AS38ULk-Fpj2xoZLDFgn5rvDWgfLOkhU6Az0xA3grXV2ylAw15pv1QtObzOFTsCPGC1hDhxnVP3B_9rOvKJspYCWMNs4qoMtPPY-fSoswKJzr1aLmjaXIYh-tssiLVxHgIs7E4AgzENa6tRozdX9KRi1r_CbCtRI_aNAPECEHD_EyQliAhG5AnQnPV5CYoVrG6Y-Q-nFd14aPSxhOHAqiBveKhno6L_OsGyMPSgBvHekOJwZveUn8zI4G_UHteK-DYYE6QLLrwU8cuLnVXeIcVqnW1XpBcH-btWLEh0megciF787jMGbHdEbprDHmIcaPErM5TxMx3uG5KcC6ZpySzTtQd7Lnpj_rdY7VTV_YIFILXdQQwH=w2952-h1660-s-no
I looked it up, we have about 2 million grey squirrels in my area alone. I think that’s why we don’t run around rescuing them. But tbh they are a very hearty species and I’ve never seen one that required rescue, i did bring an injured duck to the Audobon society, never put a duck in a cardboard box they poop all over it and by the time you drive 20 minutes the box is falling apart but it was all I had.
 
BLOW UP
Posts
1,313
Likes
1,673
Walrus Walrus
I looked it up, we have about 2 million grey squirrels in my area alone. I think that’s why we don’t run around rescuing them. But tbh they are a very hearty species and I’ve never seen one that required rescue, i did bring an injured duck to the Audobon society, never put a duck in a cardboard box they poop all over it and by the time you drive 20 minutes the box is falling apart but it was all I had.
😁😁😁
 
Fallout Boy
Posts
2,207
Likes
4,510
BLOW UP BLOW UP
They look most spectacular when they're in flight:
b30fbd9c-eace-43b6-beb0-d45f24f8d478.png ec4661e9-3512-4347-8850-c8d50eb2deae.png 8e6db50a-1a01-47b1-94cb-bd1089d6eae6-1.png d2db94a6-80e8-4c72-8e79-368245ca4403.png

Why do you just post shutter-stock photos and not own ones? 😗
Edited:
 
hen
Posts
2,102
Likes
6,086
Fallout Boy Fallout Boy
Why do you just post shutter-stock photos and not own ones? 😗

Are you really checking this for all the pictures?
 
634 More Posts...
Sign up or log in to reply...

Similar threads

GuiltyBoomerang

What to do with this Ladies Girard Perregaux watch? (Photos and a story to go with it)

GuiltyBoomerang Open Discussion
redpcar
redpcar
Posts
1
Views
1K