I shoot and eat grey squirrel and very nice they are too.
but the question is can you eat red squirrel as i 'heard' that
they have a gland that exploads when they die and contaminates
there body meat. so that pine martins wont eat them.

Off course I wouldnt dream of eating one as they are a protected
species same as swan.

Just wondering

wrote in message 
news:1119365021.566138.162120@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...

>I shoot and eat grey squirrel and very nice they are too.
> but the question is can you eat red squirrel as i 'heard' that
> they have a gland that exploads when they die and contaminates
> there body meat. so that pine martins wont eat them.
>
> Off course I wouldnt dream of eating one as they are a protected
> species same as swan.
>
> Just wondering
>


Never heard of that before! Most of the local keepers I know here in Argyll 
say that the Red squirrel numbers are decreasing as Pine Marten numbers 
increasing. I was under the impression that they are eaten by marten.

Dave

The message 
from rspoors2@tiscali.co.uk contains these words:


> I shoot and eat grey squirrel and very nice they are too.
> but the question is can you eat red squirrel as i 'heard' that
> they have a gland that exploads when they die and contaminates
> there body meat. so that pine martins wont eat them.


I'd be surprised if there was any noticeable anatomical difference
between red and grey squirrels, bar size and colour. If the animal has
been shot cleanly and is cleaned correctly immediately after it is
killed, there is no reason why anything left inside should 'explode'. 

In my experience, a pine marten will eat just about anything it can
kill, including caper and blackgame, two species that are on the brink
of extinction. 

-- 
Kim Sawyer
Sutherland
Scotland

rspoors2@tiscali.co.uk wrote in 
news:1119365021.566138.162120@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:


> I shoot and eat grey squirrel and very nice they are too.
> but the question is can you eat red squirrel as i 'heard' that
> they have a gland that exploads when they die and contaminates
> there body meat. so that pine martins wont eat them.
> 
> Off course I wouldnt dream of eating one as they are a protected
> species same as swan.
> 
> Just wondering
> 


A Swedish study found that 51% of pine marten's food was squirrels, 21% 
small mammals, 13% game birds, 5% other birds, and 2% bilberries, but as 
Kim says, they are pretty near omnivorous.

Do they have grey squirrels in Sweden? I'd have thought they would be the 
red variety.

Scottish Natural Heritage had a meeting with crofters up in this part of 
the world to explain how harmless pine martens are and why they are 
protected. One old crofter stood up and asked what they should do when they 
started killing lambs. The SNH representative replied, "Oh, they don't kill 
lambs". Quick as a flash, the crofter replied, "So why do you think we got 
rid of them in the first place?"

Derry

Well it looks like that theory about red squirrel's being inedible is a
load of bull.

So the pine martin is not the cuddly little thing that Bill Oddie said
it was!!

Spring watch showed a black gull takeing young chicks everybody said
thats nature and we should interfere but what happens when you have
loads of magpies and no song birds.............

Larsen traps ............thats cures the problem

never tried magpie ???

yours Richard