A MAP showing areas of Exmoor where grey squirrels are being ‘controlled’ is being prepared by a project working to reintroduce native red squirrels.

Red Squirrel South West wants to bring back the UK’s native species to a 35-mile woodland corridor along the Exmoor coast from Minehead and Ilfracombe.

It is using its share of a £20 million Government grant to progress the plan.

However, it means removing grey squirrels from areas where the reds will be brought back, which involves controls such as shooting and trapping.

Greys have decimated the UK’s red squirrel population since their introduction in 1876, and also pose a threat to species including songbirds, dormice, and bats.

The greys are larger and faster breeding than reds and more successful competing for food, and carry squirrel pox, to which they are immune but red squirrels are not.

Now, Red Squirrel South West is mapping areas where grey squirrel control is currently taking place, which will allow it to identify and fill any gaps.

It is asking people who are, or know of people who are, carrying out any form of grey squirrel control on land in the Westcountry to complete an online survey so they can be included in its map.

A spokesperson said: “All data collected is strictly confidential and will not be shared publicly.

“It will be used solely by the charity’s admin to help identify priority areas and guide our efforts in grey squirrel management.”

On Exmoor, the National Trust has been using volunteers to shoot grey squirrels on its Holnicote estate, between Minehead and Porlock, ahead of the charity’s plans to reintroduce the native red species.

The volunteers are trained to use a 16.27 joules air rifle, which is the most powerful that can be used in the UK without needing a firearms certificate.

They then stake out fixed bait stations in areas of the estate worst affected by the greys, resulting in abut 150 squirrels being shot in 10 months.

Lethal traps were being used for the culling but the practice had to stop when when pine martens, a protected species, were reintroduced to Exmoor.

The project has also welcomed the Government’s recent grey squirrel policy statement, which is encouraging landowners to ‘take greater action’ through financial incentives and advice over the next five years.

It also provides support for training in grey squirrel management and supports research into ‘novel forms of population management’.

The spokesperson said: “This has taken years of work from the Forestry Commission and others but it now provides official support for the work we are doing, a previously missing link for the management of greys across England.

“Thank you to everybody who has worked so hard to get this through.”

The news follows Natural England’s new ‘Red Squirrel Recovery Strategy’ which warned that without effective control of grey squirrels, reds were likely to become extinct in mainland England in the next 25 years.

The spokesperson said: “The strategy outlines the causes of red squirrels’ dramatic decline and, crucially, the actions required to reverse it.”