In article ,
Malcolm writes:
|
| The grey squirrel has become *naturalised* in the UK, but this does not
| and cannot make it "native". Angus's claim that any squirrel born here
| is "native" does not make the whole species native. And, yes, obviously
| they are a part of the country's ecology and became so from the day the
| first ones were released. They are, though, having a harmful effect on
| native species, not just the red squirrel but trees, too. If nothing is
| done about them, there is every expectation that the red squirrel will
| become extinct on mainland Britain. Do you want to see that happen?

In the case of many UK terrestrial mammals, plants and birds, and a fair
proportion of invertebrates, the distinction between native and naturalised
is very dubious.

Except for the VERY few that lasted through the last ice age or have
effectively no association with humans (and not totally clearly even for
all of them), we have no evidence whether the species were brought by
early post-glacial humans or not, whether deliberately or accidentally.
And there has been a hell of a lot of reintroduction and transfer of
'native' species since.

Red squirrels probably were not, though whether the Scottish populations
should be classified as native or naturalised is moot. But we know that
some hunter-gatherer communities kept pets, so they COULD have been
introduced.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.