One of Britain's oldest botanic gardens has banned the sale of peanuts in an attempt to deter grey squirrels. Bosses at Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Gardens said they were "fed up" with the havoc wreaked by the squirrels to some of its 15,000 plants. The move was also made amid fears the snacks could be picked up and eaten by children with allergies. Management said the public would still be allowed to bring in their own peanuts for the squirrels. Alan Bennell, the garden's deputy director of public programmes, said: "What we have here is wonderfully skilled horticulturists attempting to nurture one of the most exquisitely tailored botanic gardens in the world. "Then along comes the greedy American grey squirrel with its funny foreign habits, namely, it likes eating peanuts, and creates substantial damage to plants. "This nasty, aggressive foreign rodent has also ousted our beautiful native red squirrel from the gardens, not to mention throughout much of Britain."
It's true that Americans do have a fascination with nuts, but is Mr Bennell correct? You see, things may not be what they seem:
PLEASE NOTE: IT IS NOT UNCOMMON FOR RED SQUIRRELS TO HAVE GREY FUR, AND FOR GREYS TO BE RED. ALWAYS CHECK FOR OTHER CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES WHEN IDENTIFYING.On the other hand:
Scotland has at least 75% of the UK's red squirrel population i.e. 121,000 animals. It remains a widespread and locally common species in the wooded parts of the country. Dumfries and Galloway is a stronghold, while stable populations are believed to exists in Perthshire, parts of the central belt, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Fife, the Borders and, of course, in Ayrshire. The core populations are in the Highlands, the Caledonian forest and Dumfries and Galloway.So Scotland has an above average proportion of reds. Where have I heard that before?
With the festival about to start it's not really the time of year for Edinburgh officials to be loud mouthing American visitors even if they do have "funny foreign habits". Besides, shouldn't Scotland's reds become more entrepreneurial and grab more of the nuts for themselves?
1 comment:
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Stuart Dickson
Yet another nasty little racist raises their ugly head in the form of Robert Speirs.
I will be informing his service provider "myway.com" that he is using their service to disseminate racist material.
13 August 2004, 18:17:44 GMT+01:00
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Robert Speirs
Unfortunately the Europeans didn't "wipe out" the Indians. There are more of them now than there ever were and at least half of them are running casinos and selling tax-free cigarettes.
Hasn't an ice-age rhino been found in a Welsh cave? Why not bring him back?
13 August 2004, 15:11:43 GMT+01:00
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name
*** WARNING ***
You lads North of the border better watch it. The Thought Police will have u...New Hate crime - against woman - but not men funny that
http://www.angryharry.com/eshatespeechagainstwomen.htm
*** Hell on earth that is Britian today ***
7 August 2004, 23:39:33 GMT+01:00
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Neil
Now that the human race so thoroughly dominates the world's ecology the survival of the more photogenic species (red squirrels, wolves, beaver, seals & wallabies but not island hedgehogs) is assured.
Can roving packs of Pekinese be far off.
7 August 2004, 23:13:13 GMT+01:00
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David Farrer
But does Russia want to reintroduce reds? (Assuming they're not still there of course!)
5 August 2004, 16:00:00 GMT+01:00
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Sandy P
I thought Russia was looking to repopulate its squirrels since they were all eaten in the 40s or so.
They came to America to get some.
5 August 2004, 06:19:01 GMT+01:00
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Stuart Dickson
Harry
Thank you for your heartfelt support.
4 August 2004, 20:07:36 GMT+01:00
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Harry Powell
My God, Stuart is so right. I demand welfare payments, public housing and free foreign holidays for our suffering red squirrels NOW !
4 August 2004, 19:48:31 GMT+01:00
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Andrew Ian Dodge
So when can we expect to see the Stoppers organising a "resistance" to kill and main the invaders?
4 August 2004, 17:14:18 GMT+01:00
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Stuart Dickson
David
Ecology is clearly not your strongpoint. You'd have to be extraordinarily thick not to be able to tell the difference between the grey and the red species, even though most Scots have probably never seen a red squirrel in the wild.
The greys are not "visitors", they are colonisers, and they are doing a wonderful bit of ethnic cleansing. Maybe they learnt the skill from the European colonisers who wiped out the native Amerícans and created the USA.
Artificially introduced species are destroying our beautiful country. Get rid of the mink, wallabies and grey squirrels. Bring back the European beaver, wolf and lynx.
4 August 2004, 11:40:22 GMT+01:00
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WASPsquirrelkiller
"IT IS NOT UNCOMMON FOR RED SQUIRRELS TO HAVE GREY FUR, AND FOR GREYS TO BE RED. ALWAYS CHECK FOR OTHER CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES WHEN IDENTIFYING."
Kill 'em all, and let God decide.
They should just 'take out' the 'greyshirts.' Although not during the Festival.(although perhaps they could turn it into performance art??)
Go Reds! (I've never said that before.)
I'm sensing outrage.......
4 August 2004, 11:31:18 GMT+01:00
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