Squirrel Birth Control: Oral Contraceptives to be Used to Control Rodent Population

According to new research, oral contraceptives might aid in the reduction of grey squirrel populations. According to British experts, the nonlethal strategy might help remove the invasive species and allow red squirrels to recover.

(Photo : Rod Dion)

Giving Oral Contraceptives

According to the study, oral contraceptives for squirrels are effective, and the government plans to use them to control population growth in the UK.

Causing Harm

Grey squirrels are an invasive species in the United Kingdom, having been imported from North America in the 1870s. They threaten animals, notably endangered red squirrels, with whom they compete. They also carry squirrelpox, a disease that does not affect them but can kill reds.

They were utilized as attractive creatures to beautify the gardens of grand mansions until the harm they caused was discovered, and their release was prohibited in the 1930s.

Grey squirrels also threaten trees as they peel their bark and damage them. They are especially problematic for broadleaf species such as oak, which are ecologically significant because they sustain many other species. The invading rodents are believed to be roughly 3 million in the United Kingdom.

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Population Control

(Photo : Pixabay)

Scientists have been attempting to discover ways to keep the grey population down. The UK Squirrel Accord has recently announced promising results from a study of oral contraceptives, which might be used to prevent the creatures from mating.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (Apha) is producing contraception, and more testing is being conducted to assure its safety and effectiveness.

Scientists created a customized feeding hopper to prevent other animals from absorbing the drug. It includes a weighted door that keeps most other wildlife out while allowing more than 70% of area grey squirrel populations to enter and eat from it.

Apha is testing various strategies for keeping red squirrels out of the feeders so that the contraceptives may be used in regions where both species of squirrels exist. According to a current study, body weight might be utilized to differentiate between greys and reds. At this point in the study, no oral contraceptives have been utilized.

"The grey squirrel is an invasive species that is causing untold damage in the British countryside, where these pests continue to wreck our fledgling broadleaf trees like oak by stripping bark and disrupting the delicate balance of nature and biodiversity while diminishing our ability to combat climate change," said Environment Minister Richard Benyon.

"That is why we continue to support the UK Squirrel Accord and Apha, as this essential study on oral contraceptives shows encouraging results that might help to eradicate the grey squirrel in the UK in a nonlethal method while also assisting in the recovery of our beloved red squirrel."

Other Strategies

Other strategies to lower grey squirrel populations include releasing pine martens into specific forests. Grey squirrels are scared off and eaten by these animals. The shy martens, however, would not colonize the urban areas that are grey squirrel strongholds; thus, as long as grey squirrels replenish forests from the city, other means, including contraception, will be required to keep numbers in check.

"Fertility control can be an effective strategy complementing other methods to wildlife management," said Gideon Henderson, chief scientific advisor at the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs. This research intends to develop an immunocontraceptive that can be delivered orally to grey squirrels using a species-specific delivery method.

Critical Study

"This cutting-edge research has the potential to give an effective, simple-to-implement, and nonlethal technique for regulating grey squirrel numbers." It will assist red squirrels, who are native to the UK, return to their natural habitats while also safeguarding UK forest and enhancing biodiversity."