That’s crazy! Inside the government’s plan to crack down on gray squirrels and deer – from releasing mutated wildlife to feeding deer meat to prisoners

With their big eyes and bushy tails, gray squirrels may look cute.

But the animals are actually wreaking havoc on Britain, damaging young trees and driving the native red squirrel to the brink of extinction.

But their days could be numbered as the British government plans two new measures – including feeding hazelnut butter with contraceptives, and using gene editing technology to limit their reproduction.

The new crackdown will also target deer, which have no natural predators in Britain.

Deer will be culled, cooked and served to prisoners or people in hospitals under new net zero plans to protect England’s forests.

According to the Telegraphthe Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will soon publish new guidance on how to tackle gray squirrels and deer.

It is hoped the plans will boost Britain’s red squirrel population and help the government achieve its target of having 16.5 per cent of England under trees by 2050.

A source told the newspaper that Defra’s guidance was due to be released last summer but was postponed due to ‘frustrating’ delays to a ministerial furlough.

A spokesperson for Defra said: ‘We have no overall targets for reducing deer or gray squirrel populations, but their impact on our forests does need to be managed and will soon be publishing action plans outlining options for doing this.’

There are only an estimated 160,000 red squirrels in Britain, while there are only 15,000 in England.

The gray squirrel, which was introduced to Britain in the 19th century, is the main reason for the red squirrel’s decline.

‘The introduction of gray squirrels has had a disastrous impact on Britain’s only native squirrel species, the red squirrel,’ explains the Woodland Trust.

‘Grey animals compete with red animals for food and also carry a virus known as squirrel pox.

‘Although the grays are actually immune to the disease, they pass the disease on to the reds, for whom the disease is fatal.’

As well as putting red squirrels at risk of extinction, gray squirrels are also causing major damage to British trees.

‘Gray squirrels can also affect the composition of native forests by stripping the bark of certain trees and eating the seeds of certain trees,’ the Woodland Trust said.

Gray squirrels are already being culled in parts of the country to protect red squirrels and mitigate their damaging effects.

But Defra’s new guidelines will ramp up the cull through two new measures.

First, contraceptives can be put into the food of gray squirrels to effectively sterilize the population.

Experts from the Animal and Plant Health Agency (Apha) have developed special bait boxes with a weighted door that only gray squirrels can access.

During a four-day trial in Yorkshire and Wales in 2022, the baited boxes allowed more than 70 percent of local gray squirrel populations to enter and eat, while excluding other species.

Although the researchers are not currently using the contraceptive in the natural landscape, they previously revealed plans to enrich hazelnut paste with their drug and put it in the special feeders.

Gideon Henderson, chief scientific adviser at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said at the time: ‘Fertility monitoring can be an effective method to complement other wildlife management approaches.

‘This UK Squirrel Accord & Defra funded study aims to produce an immunocontraceptive that can be administered orally to gray squirrels via a species-specific delivery mechanism.

‘This innovative research has great potential to provide an effective, easy-to-apply and non-lethal method for managing gray squirrel populations.

‘It will help red squirrels – native to Britain – to expand back into their natural habitat, protect British forests and increase biodiversity.’

Another option would be to use CRISPR technology to ensure that only one sex can be bred.

CRISPR is a precise gene-editing tool that allows researchers to find and modify a specific stretch of DNA in a cell.

In 2021, scientists from the University of Edinburgh suggested that CRISPR could be used to genetically alter gray squirrels so that they pass on infertility genes.

In the study, published in Scientific Reports, researchers found that releasing just 100 mutant squirrels into a population of 3,000 grays would wipe out the population within 15 years.

However, this was based on computer modeling and could prove more difficult in reality.

Dr. Tony Nolan, senior lecturer at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said: ‘The challenge will be in translating these elements of theory into practical testing in the laboratory, which will not be a trivial exercise.

‘Demonstrating its practical feasibility would be an important milestone.’

Although further details on both options are yet to be revealed by Defra, their rollout cannot come soon enough, the Red Squirrel Survival Trust said.

“Without conservation management, red squirrels in England will become extinct within about a decade and the rest of Britain will follow,” she added.

As well as gray squirrels, Defra is also working to reduce the English deer population culling deer and serving the deer meat to people in prisons, people in hospitals or members of the armed forces.

There are currently up to two million wild deer in Britain, after a two-year pause in culling during the pandemic.

With no natural enemies, the thriving deer population has negatively impacted forest biodiversity due to excessive foraging.