"K" wrote in message
...
Ellie Bentley writes
K wrote:
Well, she did say they *decimate* 85% of song birds. Since the true
meaning of decimate is to kill one in 10, this would suggest grey
squirrels are killing one in 10 of 85% of songbirds, or 8.5% ;-)

I certainly couldn't make sense of the statement any other way.

OOK, "she" did not use "decimate" accurately but meant to refer to
recent reports that squirrels totally destroy about 85%.

I just do not understand this statement. It does not square with the
observation that, even in grey squirrel areas, songbirds are not
declining that fast. Or does it mean that 85% of eggs are taken? - the
fact that birds have often two batches of several eggs being their
strategy for coping with a high infant mortality. A species where a pair
reared only 4 young to breeding age, and with each pair breeding only
once, would increase over a thousand-fold in 10 years.


I believe the 85% was deduced by a professor at a London University, from
reviewing other people's reports and papers, for use by a 'save our
songbirds' pressure group, which wants to persuade people to kill squirrels
and sparrowhawks and cats.