Red squirrels have been almost wiped out by their larger US relatives but now appear to be winning the fight by dodging pine martens which make meals of unsuspecting greys

Red squirrels are outsmarting their grey counterparts when it comes to pine martens(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Red squirrels are enjoying a nutty revival thanks to a stealthy forest assassin which is gobbling up their grey cousins.

Pine martens are stoat-like hunters which petrify the native bushy-tailed rodents but dozy greys are oblivious to their threat, a new study has found.

Numbers of native reds are soaring as they have lived alongside the predators for centuries and are wise to their wily ways. The cat-sized mammals are part of the weasel family and are critically endangered across the UK.

They are playful but deadly and would easily make a meal of an unsuspecting grey, especially during the spring and summer months.

Red squirrels are a rare sight in the UK
Red squirrels are a rare sight in the UK(Image: Getty Images)

Reds, however, are far more cautious if they know a pine marten is nearby, the study by the University of Galway found.

Dr Emily Reilly said: “Red squirrels would rarely even eat any food if a pine marten had been there in the last eight hours.

“They slowly became less cautious but you could still see the effect even days after the pine marten visit. The grey squirrels do not have this response. This is most likely why their numbers have been decreasing since the pine marten has made a comeback.”

Red squirrels have been almost wiped out by their larger US relatives
Red squirrels have been almost wiped out by their larger US relatives(Image: Getty Images)

The research, carried out in the Irish countryside, studied almost 500 squirrel visits and 226 pine marten appearances. It would likely be the same picture in Britain, the squirrel boffs said, as pine marten numbers are also rising here.

The study, published in Royal Society Open Science, said: “Following a pine marten visit to a feeder, red squirrels displayed a typical anti-predator response, exhibiting increased vigilance and decreased feeding.”

It marks a flip of fortune for reds which have been all but wiped out by bigger and greedier greys since they arrived from the US in the 1800s.

The bigger and greedier greys have almost wiped out the reds since they arrived from the US in the 1800s.
The bigger and greedier greys have almost wiped out the reds since they arrived from the US in the 1800s(Image: Getty Images)

The tufty-eared mammals were once the only squirrel in the UK and could be seen almost anywhere. But the introduction of greys drastically reduced their numbers and forced them to retreat to remote wild landscapes.

It comes after wildlife chiefs warned their nutjob relatives were taking over the last remaining red strongholds last year.

An annual check revealed the natives were now outnumbered in both Cumbria and Northumberland, with the North Americans bringing outbreaks of deadly squirrelpox.

Ian Glendinning, chair of Northern Red Squirrels, warned it was “make or break time” for the struggling rodents.

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By staronline@reachplc.com (Kate Nelson)

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