Nick Mason, project manager for Red Squirrels Northern England, said until now Kielder had been a “very safe place for red squirrels”, with only “occasional sightings” of greys here and there near the forest.  The recent spate of sightings was “worrying”, he said, and conservationists are stepping up their efforts to try to protect the safe haven.  They have so far captured and killed all the greys that have been spotted in the forest and are expecting to secure new funding to bolster the defences as part of a £1.2 million grant announced on Friday from the Heritage Lottery Fund for red squirrel conservation nationwide.  Mr Mason said they planned to use the new cash next year to install 40 new motion-activated camera traps in remote parts of the woodland to detect squirrel movements as part of an “early warning system”.  A red squirrel jumps across a wall in Kielder Forest, Northumberland Photo: Owen Humphreys/PA  They also plan to recruit up to 50 new volunteers to monitor the cameras for the grey infiltrators and either alert them when an animal is spotted or “find and kill it” themselves.  Mr Mason said volunteers were trained to kill the greys humanely, without using firearms. The main method used is live capture using cage traps.  “We decant the animal to a hessian sack and the animal is knocked on the head with a ‘priest’ – a little stick”, he explained.  In total 1,250 volunteers are expected to be recruited to “community-based rapid response teams” nationwide through the new lottery funding, although not all the volunteers will be involved in killing squirrels.  Most of the UK’s red squirrels are in Scotland, though there are also populations on the Isle of Wight and Anglesey protected by the natural barrier of the sea.  • Ministers admit defeat in grey squirrels battle • Leprosy threat to red squirrels revealed  Funding will also be spent in Merseyside, where there is an enclave of red squirrels living near the coast. Conservationists are planning to extend the “red squirrel protection zone”, culling greys in the urban areas surrounding the reds’ habitat.  “We want to kill as few grey squirrels as possible to save as many reds as possible,” Mr Mason said.  The area of Britain inhabited by red squirrels has been contracting for the last 130 years as greys advance, passively transmitting diseases which are fatal for reds.  Even when disease isn’t a factor the reds can be lost because greys are more adaptable and breed faster, out-competing the reds for food and resources.  Grey squirrels, which are native to North America, are estimated to number about 2.5 million in the UK.
More than a dozen sightings of grey squirrels in past month in Kielder Forest,   the last safe haven for the red squirrel on the English mainland