Remember the
Tufty Club? No, of course you don't, you're all way too young. Well, let me
enlighten you. The Tufty Club was the hub of a road awareness campaign run
during the 1950s and 60s, its figurehead, inspiration and main star being Tufty
Fluffytail, a red squirrel. Children were urged to join the club and received a
badge for their trouble. It was very successful and certainly engendered in us
kids the need to be careful when crossing the road. The fact the powers that be
chose a red squirrel to connect with children goes to show what a familiar and
endearing creature it once was; every wood and park had them. Tufty and his
pals held sway until the introduction of that Darth Vader in the making the
Green Cross Code Man, aka David Prowse. It wasn't the same.
Red squirrels
are, as we all know, our native squirrel, the only true wild squirrel
inhabiting our countryside. Only it is now absent from most of it. Vast tracts
of lowland Britain are now populated only by the alien North American imposter,
that rascally rodent the grey, who by a combination of bullying tactics and
carrier of a nasty virus has out-competed and eradicate our beloved Tufty from our consciousness and canopies. The sad and sorry fact is that
there are generations of young people in England, south of Cumbria and
Northumberland, who have never seen a red squirrel in the wild and more
worryingly believe the ubiquitous grey to be the true proclaimer to the tree
rodent throne. So, finding ourselves in Speyside we determined to put matters
right and find our very own Tufty, representing the first I would have seen in
the wild since, oh I dunno, 1968 perhaps.
What better
place to commence our search then but the magnificent RSPB reserve at Loch Garten famous for its breeding ospreys. And we didn't have to wait long before we espied one of these endearing
little mammals plundering the sunflower seeds from the bird feeders just
outside the visitor centre. Such a cheeky and engaging little character and so
agile, able to hang upside down gripping the tree trunk only with its hind
claws as it contrived to force its way into the bounty. So much more appealing
than those 2nd rate usurpers that plague our southern woodlands. It’s
comforting to know these lovely animals still manage to find refuge in this
wonderful ancient Caledonian woodland, although we were told that greys have
been sighted around Perth and are moving north apace. Unfortunately it seems
the only answer in order to prevent further loss of the reds is to shoot the
greys (they’re good eating apparently – slightly nutty flavour perhaps?), and
licenced hunters are busy doing just that. The Scottish Natural Heritage
website has much interesting information about the current strategy of control,
but despite proactive intervention and the setting up of special red squirrel
preserves the future doesn’t look too healthy. Squirrel pox is already hitting
populations of reds in southern Scotland and could move north with devastating
effect. Once more we see the damage caused by the ignorance of man when
meddling with the natural world.
So Well Adapted to their Environment |
What a Gorgeous Tail |
Earlier in our
travels around Scotland, prior to ferrying to Orkney, we went for a late
evening stroll around quite lanes a few miles west of Inverness. There from a
stand of pine and birch we heard a strange sound, a spitting and snarling, that
could only have been made by a feline. The noise felt large if you catch my
drift and came to us only twice. Despite standing stock still and scanning the
dusk enshrouded slopes through binoculars we couldn’t see anything. It could
have been a couple of moggies having a spat, but this was a long way from any
real kind of civilisation, a couple of farmhouses widely spaced and that’s all.
Or, it may, just may have been a wildcat. We will never know. But of course it
is now doubtful if there is such a thing as a genuinely wild British wildcat.
Most, if not all, the population has been hybridised to the point of
eradication as a pure species. Even if we did hear a ‘wildcat’ it would
probably have been to a greater or lesser degree tainted with genes from feral
cats which far outnumber wildcats nowadays. My friend Nick is currently
undertaking an around the globe search for the world’s big cats, and his recent
search for a wildcat within these shores is well documented in his blog Compare
the Marsh Tit (see the link to the right of this post). There within you will
also find much more information about the dilemma now facing conservationists
regarding wildcats, another native species we’ve sadly allowed to virtually
disappear.
I find it
strangely ironic that within the UK we, yes that’s you and me, do not seem
capable of raising sufficient steam, awareness, money or political will to
solve these problems that are happening now, here, on our doorstep. Red
squirrels, wildcats, many birds and a host of other animals are in deep
trouble. Badgers are culled unnecessarily, hen harriers persecuted
unforgivably, hares coursed unscrupulously and now the government is thinking
about allowing fox hunting to recommence unbelievably. Yet there is no TV
commercials outlining the plight of these creatures, no mainstream cries of
protest at the inexcusable situation we have allowed develop in this 21st
century, and no countrywide campaign to generate a change in attitude and a
catalyst for change. But everyone knows about the plight of the tiger, African
elephant and rhino. Quite right, they should. And those causes are worthy and
pressing, but let’s not forget the little things inhabiting our own island
home. Once these things are gone we will never be able to bring them back. It
boils down to ignorance again in that people just are simply unaware of the
scale of the problems I guess. Maybe they should bring back Tufty and get the
kids loving him again.
Who Could Fail to be Entranced? |
What gorgeous pictures Barry! Years since I've seen a wild Red Squirrel (Mind you, the ones in the breeding programme at Kelling Heath are cute!)
ReplyDeleteCheers David, it was lovely to see a truly wild one again. Such a shame we have lost them, but there's always hope for a return.
ReplyDelete