A New Solution for Invasive Species

Posted on 11 May 2008 by rpg

In today’s Observer there is a story that will gladden the hearts of conservationists across the UK. The new way to tackle invasive species is to eat them. According to the paper, grey squirrel (the invasive American species) is the latest meat to hit the shelves. The normal methods of eradication is not going to work (well, I guess we could put poisoned peanuts in ridiculous places where no sane animal would go), so why not eat them?
The Beast agrees of course, although he wonders why we bother to burn it first. He also doesn’t understand the difference between nasty American gr*-a-*ey squirrels and good European red squirrels, which might be a problem if we asked him to help. In fairness, he has only tasted the European species.
This is an effort I can get behind, and I think it should be tried for other species too. But it might take a bit longer before someone comes up with a good recipe for cane toad.

About rpg

Scientist, poet, gadfly
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

6 Responses to A New Solution for Invasive Species

  1. Graham Steel says:
    11 May 2008 at 09:22

    Vegetarians look away now.
    It was not until a couple of years ago that I was aware that squirrel meat was consumed in America. Gut reaction (pun intended) was how could anyone consider eating such a cute wee thing. Tempted now though to give it a try.
    About 5 years ago our “curry club” (lads night out) visited Khublai Khan in Glasgow.
    _Rid yourself of the Monday blues by Visiting the UKs only Restaurnt where you can create your own dishes selecting such exotic delicacies
    as WILD BOAR, OSTRICH, SHARK, VENISON, SPRINGBOK, KANGAROO, and ZEBRA, as well as more mundane meats and loads of veg._
    In perspective, I would say that squirrel is rather tame in amongst the rest of the menu. The Beast would probably love a visit though.

  2. Bryan Wetterow says:
    11 May 2008 at 14:14

    nasty American grey squirrels
    They are actually quite delicious!

  3. Heather Etchevers says:
    11 May 2008 at 17:35

    And you thought you knew what omnivore meant.

  4. Heather Etchevers says:
    11 May 2008 at 17:40

    I grew up with plenty of those pesky grey squirrels, some in the attic over my head: why aren’t they pests all over the Continent as well?
    And: why the heck haven’t raccoons made headway here? That’s an adaptable, smart animal if ever one was. (Hmm. I want to write “were” but it sounds strange.) All the Europeans visiting the U.S. go “oooh” and “aaah” over them, especially the cubs, so some idiot must have tried to bring one over at some point, I’m sure.
    Just read this book with my daughter; it was quite timely.

  5. Henry Gee says:
    11 May 2008 at 18:56

    Funnily enough we were discussing this very thing earlier today. Apparently the problem with squirrels is skinning them. The trick is to skin the back legs first, then, while standing on the flayed back legs, you pull the skin upwards and the whole thing comes clean off. Allegedly.

  6. Cath Ennis says:
    12 May 2008 at 23:34

    Raccoons, ugh. Very cute, but they’ve made a hell of a mess of our roof, and prevent us from letting the cats outside unsupervised. They also tried to steal a watertight box containing our wallets, phones and car keys on a kayak camping trip one summer. If we’d got back to the tent 2 minutes later they’d have dragged the bos into the undergrowth and we’d have been well and truly SOL.

Comments are closed.