Fewer squirrels in London?

May 14, 2023 2:45 AM

I live in London, UK. I see fewer grey squirrels around than I used to. Has something affected the squirrel population?

Our block has communal gardens which, usually, have lots of squirrels running around. They are healthy-looking little thugs who have no fear of people. This year, I've seen a grand total of zero squirrels. Usually they start becoming visible around April.

Are there fewer squirrels around? Maybe I'm just imagining it? I did find this article about plans to control the grey squirrel population but that dates back to 2021.

I haven't been out to the big parks much this year so I've no idea if the squirrel population there is different.

Super random I know, but I'm curious.

posted by unicorn chaser to Grab Bag (10 answers total)

I'm in Southwark, and I've seen loads when I've been out running. Whether less than usual, I couldn't tell you, but not zero.
posted by Grangousier at 3:00 AM on May 14, 2023

I'm in Croydon and I've been seeing lots of squirrels, if anything more than I'm used to. We even have some visiting our garden, which hasn't happened before. They're all fat and sassy and seem to be doing well.

I'd suggest that the squirrels near you may have moved their territory this year, maybe they've lost a nesting site or there's a new cat in the area that's chasing them away. It's also been a fairly cold spring so far so they might be a little delayed in getting out and about.
posted by fight or flight at 3:52 AM on May 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

No apparent change in North East London and saw several in Hampstead Heath last week.
posted by knapah at 4:39 AM on May 14, 2023

Perhaps a couple of your neighbours got dogs?
posted by Phanx at 5:21 AM on May 14, 2023

Has there been an increase in owls/other birds of prey that eat squirrels in your area?
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:54 AM on May 14, 2023

Chicago, not London, but my anecdata is that a decline in squirrel populations in my neighborhood came quickly on the heels of the increase in raptors making their homes in our parks.
posted by goatdog at 7:29 AM on May 14, 2023

They're all down here on Clapham Common. They love my housemates potted plants, too.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 11:14 AM on May 14, 2023

Squirrels go through cycles of boom and bust. When they are in boom times, if there are enough of them they can gnaw their way into people's property and leave them with a significant repair bill. Grey squirrels are the largest ones and do the most damage. Property owners sometimes poison them discreetly the second time they gnaw their way into the attic. Also, boom times in their population can lead to epidemics. The one that is perhaps most likely to affect squirrels in mange.

Squirrels can sometimes be taken out as collateral damage when people are poisoning rats.

Someone in the neighbourhood may have been feeding them thus leading to a much higher population, and then stopped, leading to a crash in population. For example two or three seniors feeding the squirrels on their daily walks and chatting to each other about it can easily lead to a big population boom, as can a small handful of parents regularly bringing the kids to the park with a bag of peanuts so they can feed the squirrels.

However feeding squirrels on peanuts will lead to them developing significant calcium deficiencies; there is no calcium in peanuts and the squirrels will eat them to exclusion of anything else. The calcium deficiency leads to spinal fractures and the pathetic sight of squirrels dragging their hind legs and tail... And that can lead to the seniors abruptly withholding the peanuts, when they realise what they have done.

Local parks sometimes only enforce the "do not feed the squirrels" rules after the population boom has either led to complains or crippled squirrels.

If they planned to do something about the invasive grey squirrel species crowding out the local ones in 2021, it sounds very likely that you are seeing the results now. They wouldn't want to have killed every single type of squirrel in the area, so they might have gone with something that took a bit longer.
posted by Jane the Brown at 11:28 AM on May 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Interesting insights. There are actually fewer cats in the neighbourhood than there used to be. So it can't be that. But maybe something else has happened to cause their territory to shift.

Thanks for indulging my curiosity!
posted by unicorn chaser at 2:28 AM on May 15, 2023

Something else to consider is that squirrels predominantly eat nuts, and many species of nut trees including oaks go through boom (called "masting") and bust cycles of production. Mast years happen every few years. In that year the production of nuts/acorns is extremely high, mamas have more babies, so more squirrels, which subsequently brings predators in, then the following year there are more predators and fewer things to eat so a decline in population. Looks like the UK had a big mast year in 2020 (link) Maybe what you are seeing is the post-boom decline that is part of the normal cycle?
posted by SinAesthetic at 11:58 AM on May 15, 2023 [4 favorites]