To think Whinfell Center Parcs should not have feral cats

[CrossAndTired]

We are regular guests here and always love seeing the red squirrels. We bring nuts and seeds to throw onto the patio and normal get lots of visitors.
This morning was our first here and I sat watching the dawn looking out into the forest waiting to see the lovely wildlife. After a couple of fat pigeons what appeared at the door meowing to be fed was a black and white cat.
After discussing it with the wildlife wardens we found out it is Tom they have trapped, neutered and released deliberately into the forest. They said it keeps the rodents down. Red squirrels are a rodent so presumably that is why this is the first visit, after coming here every year for 12 years, that we have not seen one.
So AIBU to think if you are claiming to run a red squirrels reserve you should not allow cats inside the huge wire fences.

Cats very very rarely eat squirrels but eat a lot of mice and rats which will be a problem at Whinfell due to people/bins etc. The smell of a cat is enough to repel many rats/cats - they are very effective. Poison is MORE likely to harm none target species than cats. You can't run a true reserve of any kind at a holiday park - it is a lovely idea but CP is NOT a wildlife haven, it is a high profit business.

You've only mentioned one cat OP.

If you feel you know better and care more about the squirrels than the wardens running the place then go and have a stern word with them.

So not feral and not plural. I think it's a good idea and it won't harm the squirrels.

This is my cat at home with a grey squirrel, much larger than the reds here. My cat does this alot and is fed very well.
Why else have we not seen any squirrels, surely if the scent of a cat deters mice and rats it will also deter squirrels.

Yes it is both according to my chat with the rangers.

I don’t think one cat is going to decimate the red squirrel population there

You've probably not seen any red squirrels as there's a grey squirrel population in Whinfell that is wiping them out with squirrelpox.

Also Whinfell promote their red squirrel population and their preservation efforts a lot, they have a project to manage the grey squirrels and protect the red ones, so I'd doubt they have released this cat to cull squirrels. Unfortunately red squirrels are being wiped out everywhere thanks to grey squirrels. We've had some grey squirrel sightings near us in the north of Scotland, which is worrying

Red squirrels spend much more time in trees and are quicker than greys and so are less vulnerable than greys to certain predators like cats and pine martens (which is there is a big focus on encouraging pine martens to breed in certain areas of scotland right now)

Predators are an important and necessary part of the natural world!!

One cat is not going to cause a problem to the red squirrel population. Multiple people feeding the birds and squirrels however is going to cause a huge mouse and rat problem. Leave Tom alone.

Is it just one cat?

Squirrel pox has been a massive problem in the Lakes the last year. Worse I’ve known it for ages. I’m surprised your cat catches squirrels, cats tend to be ground hunters and won’t tend to chase a squirrel up a tree to catch it. So it would be unlucky for a squirrel to be caught out on the ground. Greys are bolder and spend more time on the ground than reds.

Possibly the wildlife warden whose job it is to look after the area knows that there is a danger of cats catching the squirrels and has taken this into account.

We were down south on holiday recently and amazed by the boldness of the greys. My daughters got near enough to almost touch them (to their delight!) and they were just all over at ground level. We saw loads of them.

Here, a red squirrel gets sight of you and they're off! I very rarely see them on the ground and I don't even see them that often, despite us being in the heart of red squirrel country with no grey population.

i think the people whose job it is to manage this probably have a better handle on it than anyone else OP

I'm in Cumbria. There's loads of red squirrels where I live and loads of cats. Doesn't seem to be an issue.

The (unneutered) grey squirrels are much more of a problem for red squirrels than a small number of cats.

I suspect if this picture had half a dozen massive rats in it rather than the moorhen, squirrels, and deer, people would be less thrilled to post their pictures to FB and would probably not pay ££££ to stay in a shed in the woods.

We went to Whinfell five times over a period of 12 years, and never once saw a red squirrel.

My cats are hunters through and through and can catch just about anything but have never caught a red squirrel. We don't have greys here but I am confident they could easily catch a grey. I think it is a great idea to use a predator to control rats and mice. If they used poison there woupd be a risk the red squirrels would also access that poison. Cats seem like the best option to be honest.

My cat is an avid hunter and can catch mice and rats on a daily basis but has never caught a squirrel despite often chasing after them. I appreciate some cats manage to, but I doubt the cat at Center Parcs is a serious danger to the squirrels there.

If greys (and therefore squirrel pox) are in Whinfell that is why you haven't seen any. Squirrel pox is a horrific, very contagious and fast spreading disease.

Red and grey squirrels behave differently. Grey squirrels spend a lot more time on the forest floor. Red squirrels mainly live up in the canopy. It’s one of the reasons that reds are more sensitive to changes in their environment as they need a density of pine trees in order to move around a woodland/forest.

Therefore as cats are not well suited to hunting from high up within trees I think it’s unlikely that cats would be a serious threat to red squirrels.

We put out monkey nuts for the red squirrels and we normally see them every time we are at the lodge. We place the nuts on the floor so that is where we see them, not in the trees. We haven’t seen them once from our lodge but just out walking did see one in a different area of the forest.
I won’t come back to whinfell despite having been here at least once per year for the last 12 years. The red squirrels are the USP of Whinfell over other center parcs locations.

We have been to Whinfell twice in the past year and seen plenty of red squirrels. We have seen a cat once or twice but the squirrels a lot .

It's the time of year and temperature, they will be lying low (or high to be more accurate) conserving energy and eating their store