Welsh Journals

ANGLESEY SQUIRRELS Woodland is far from plentiful in this island but RED SQUIRRELS (Sciurus vulgaris) are present here and there in mixed coniferous/ deciduous stands and are beginning to colonise pine plantations as these become high enough to afford shelter and seed-bearing coons. The indigenous British form of this Squirrel (S.v. leucourus) normally develops a cream or off-white tail by summer, in fact we have seen July tails in Breconshire that appeared in the field to be pure white. In our experience the Anglesey population never gets below pale gold" or rich cream," and even this latter is rare. This colour change begins to become obvious during March and lasts until the autumn moult. Recently there have been two separate occurrences of the black form of Red Squirrel in S.W. Anglesey. One of these, which we have not ourselves seen, was observed in December 1972 among 1947-48 planted pines on Newborough Warren. The other was on the opposite side of the Cefni Estuary, in mature mixed woodland. This one was first reported in the autumn of 1972, but it was 10 March 1973 before we succeeded in seeing it for ourselves. It was of such an extremely dark brown as to appear virtually black except for the tip of the tail which was red, and for the normal white underparts. These "black" or partly "black" mutations are quite frequent with the continental form of the Red Squirrel, indeed we have seen them commonly in Switzerland, but are unknown with the indigenous British race (Handbook of British Mammals, p. 269). It seems probable therefore that the above two records relate to released or escaped continentals." We know of several instances in North Wales and Cheshire where Red Squirrels have been bought in pet shops to release on the buyer's land to replace the vanished local population, or to keep caged, eventually to escape. These squirrels have certainly been imported from the continent and, though some have indeed been red, others have been of this black-brown colouration. In a case known to us in Wirral, some years ago, two pairs were bought from a pet shop (in Birkenhead?) and released the following spring. One of the males was red and the other three animals were of this very dark form. At least one of the latter had a red tip to the tail as with the specimen we saw on 10 March (above). We have personally heard of no such releases or escapes in Anglesey but would be glad of information on this point. GREY SQUIRREL (Sciurus carolinensis). We are happy to say that so far we have only two records for Anglesey. During the winter of 1965-66 a road-killed body was found near the Menai Straits railway bridge, and on Friday 13 May (an appropriate date!) 1966 we saw a live adult near the Front Lodge of Bodorgan Hall. The Head Keeper was immediately informed and it has not been seen since. L. S. V. and U. M. VENABLES