About 170 people, well-known in Britain, have drawn a squirrel for the Northumberland Wildlife Trust, which is trying to raise funds to help preserve the red squirrel, whose last redoubt in England is, apparently, in Kielder forest or reservation in that county. Country Life magazine shows a fine sprawly drawing by Michael Caine, the actor (now Sir Michael). It might be a squirrel; anyway he writes around it: "This is the best I can do, good job I'm an actor." The Trust says it has had an amazing response including Sir Paul McCartney, Jilly Cooper the novelist, the Duchess of York, Dame Judi Dench, Glenda Jackson and other well-known people.
The Red Squirrels have had a difficult time in the last centuries. In Ireland, they died out towards the end of the 17th century, their skins having been exported in large numbers like those of the marten and otter. The reds were reintroduced early in the 19th century and, according to Cabot in Ireland: A Natural History, have since spread to all 32 counties. Some people think the grey has driven the red out, but their feeding preferences and areas differ - reds going for coniferous areas and greys for mixed. How often have you seen a red? A group of friends who between them cover much of the country, some being anglers, others in the horticultural business, haven't seen one red in decades. Maybe just chance?
Doesn't the Phoenix Park have reds? A neat, well-illustrated Government Publications Booklet, Nature in the Phoenix Park, is cautious. "Both the red squirrel and grey squirrel are associated with the Park. The first, recorded sighting of the grey squirrel in the Phoenix Park was in Aras an Uachtarain in 1978. The last recorded sighting of the red squirrel was on St. Patrick's Day, 1987. The precise relationship between these two species has yet to be established." Date of the pamphlet is 1993. It is to be noted that red squirrels have died out even when no greys were around. In 1956 a letter to The Field of England recorded that a helminthologist (an expert in intestinal worms) found a roundworm in the duodenum of a red squirrel corpse and identified it as the cause of death. Are they frailer than the greys? Y