Suicide squirrel?

By Hayley Birch

A squirrel has died between the bicycle spokes of a Finnish opera singer. Esa Ruuttunen, soon to be star of Kaarmeen Hetki (Hour of the Serpent) at the Helsinki Opera House, is now recovering in hospital after sustaining a broken nose in the collision.

An open and shut case of rodent suicide perhaps, but the Null is suspicious. If said squirrel was a Eurasian red - more common outside the UK, where it is being ousted by the American grey - its motives need careful consideration.

In 1913, Emily Wilding Davison threw herself under one of the king's horses in an act of martyrdom and publicity for women's voting rights. Could this squirrel be pulling a similar stunt to highlight the problems faced by his cousins in Britain, and more recently, Italy?

Red squirrels have been declining in numbers since the introduction of the more aggressive grey squirrel at the end of the 19th century. Although the Null found no evidence of the invaders having arrived in Scandinavia, a recent study predicted that growing populations of greys in Northern Italy could threaten reds in neighbouring countries within just a few decades.

However, only last month Professor Stephen Harris, who leads the mammal research group at the University of Bristol, claimed attempts to save red squirrels across the UK mainland were a waste of money and that they are common enough elsewhere in the world. Prof. Harris recommends conservation efforts focus on Britain's smaller islands, such as the Isle of Wight, where success could be cheaper and easier.

With such an uncertain future ahead, who could blame the poor little critter if he was trying to grab the headlines for the sake of his species?

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