And the Brits Went After the Grays, Perhaps They Thought They Were Irish!

In the WSJ they now state that the demise of the red squirrel in England is not due to the gray squirrel, some of whom are my best friends, but some virus to which the red are most sensitive but the grays are less.

The WSJ states:

The role of parasites in causing species to decline is often overlooked. Native European red squirrels, for example, have long been retreating in Britain at the hands of the American gray squirrel, which menagerie-owning aristocrats introduced in the 19th century. For years it was thought to be the competition for food that prevented the squirrels' co-existence, but now scientists place most of the blame on a parapox virus that causes a mild illness to the grays but kills the reds.

As this case shows, blaming a pathogen does not exculpate people. A new disease usually runs rampant because human beings have introduced it inadvertently—or, in the case of the rabbit disease myxomatosis, deliberately. A virus of native South American rabbits, "myxy" (as it is called) killed 90% of European rabbits when deliberately released in Australia and Europe in the 1950s. Resistance has since grown, but slowly.

 It was just a couple of years ago that the Brits thought they should have an all out massacre of the gray squirrel assuming the American invader was the cause not a co-sufferer of the disease. A classic British response, kill them off.