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| | | WILD EUROPE
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Go to the Listen Again page | | | | | Can the red squirrel survive in Europe if the grey squirrel spreads over the Italian Alps? | | | |
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Conflict and co-operation, challenges and solutions - Lionel Kelleway finds the inside stories wherever wildlife and people meet across the continent.
| | |  | | | The future of the red squirrel is threatened by the spread of the grey squirrel over the Italian Alps. | |  Listen againto the programme | |
Grey Squirrels
With decades of increasingly easy international travel, the problem of introduced or “alien” animal and plant species is of growing concern throughout the world. With no need for passports or papers, just a well-meaning human carrier, in the last century many species have found themselves transported to foreign climes.
Many of them have remained undetected for years andquietly establish themselves in their new home. The grey squirrel for example,may seem like part ofBritain's wildlife,but really it a North American species, which, whilst colonising Britain, has wiped out the native red squirrel population in all but a few isolated areas.
In this week’s Wild Europe Lionel Kelleway travels to Italy, to discover how the grey squirrelarrived there after World War Two and has nowtravelled north to the Italian Alps. In its wake it has devastated the native red squirrel population and is poised to disperse across Europe. With the help of continuous forest and few physical barriers, their spread is likely to be rapid.
Lionel asks if there is hope for the red squirrel if the grey squirrel crosses Italy's border and colonises the rest of mainland Europe. | | |
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