Last week I had the opportunity to travel up to the Kelling Heath holiday park in North Norfolk to photograph the latest Red Squirrel kittens to be born into their captive breeding program. This program was started in 1999 with the aim to help preserve numbers of the Red Squirrel in the country following their devastating decline due mainly to the pressure on them from the introduced Grey Squirrel. The Grey Squirrels being larger are able to out compete the native reds for available food and they also produce young at a faster rate too. The other main reason for the decline of the reds is a virus carried by the greys that they themselves are immune to but which can be lethal to our native red squirrels.
This breeding program has been very successful producing young for both reintroduction to the wild and for use in other breeding programs elsewhere. It is important for young squirrels to be integrated into other breeding schemes to keep the gene pools varied as inbreeding can easily occur if not carefully monitored. The parent squirrels at Kelling Heath at the moment arrived in 2012 where they were named 'Fred and Ginger' and this is their second brood of the year after successfully raising three kits in the spring. These three youngsters are no longer with their parents as in the wild they are driven from the parents territory when they near adulthood and if they had not been moved then fights would occur as well as the chance of inbreeding. The latest kits emerged from the nest box last week at the age of roughly six weeks keen to explore the surroundings of their compound and for the first week or two are easily approached as they have yet to develop their nervousness around people.
Positioning myself at the end of the enclosure I sat down and waited and it wasn't long before the inquisitive young kits began to approach and explore allowing some close photography. In some cases they came so close that the camera would not focus and as long as I remained still they were happy to feed and play. I was amazed that the parents were so tolerant of me and although they kept an eye on their offspring they didn't seem at all bothered by my presence.
On a more technical note it was very difficult to get images of the kits in surroundings that were not obviously captive and looked reasonably natural but on a few occasions when they were on the ground I did get some photos without man made objects in view. Another problem was the very harsh light which made exposure difficult or maybe that's just me looking for an excuse for my bad photography!
Hopefully these latest additions to the Red Squirrel population will find homes soon, maybe in an authorised release scheme or in other captive breeding programs around the country. Any releases have to be carried out under license and in areas that are not susceptible to intrusion from the greys which means islands like or isolated wooded areas in locations such as Northumberland or Cumbria. About 30 years ago the area around Kelling was the last stronghold of Red Squirrels in the region and it would be nice to think that one day they could be seen here again in the wild but realistically without some drastic intervention to reduce or eradicate the Grey squirrel population that will never happen and the only chance many people will have to see these beautiful and charismatic creatures are at captive breeding schemes such as this.
Angelsey
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