Red squirrel ‘becoming immune’ to killer virus

Image courtesy of flickr.com user Gilles Gonthier

The embattled red squirrel – feared to be facing extinction in England and Wales within 25 years – may have developed a last-gasp trick to save it from a deadly virus being spread by its grey American cousin. Wild red squirrels have developed an apparent immunity to the squirrel pox virus, which was killing off the last their remaining communities in England and Wales, as well as threatening the much larger native squirrel population in Scotland.

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Tagged as: American Grey Squirrels, England, Extinction, Red Squirrels, Scotland, Squirrels, Viruses, Wales

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