Photograph of squirrel

Gene drive squirrels in the UK

Mapping the scientific, social, ethical, and governance issues in the use of gene drive for managing invasive species

Film: Gene drive grey squirrels

Written and produced by Sarah Hartley and Tom Law.

UK scientists have proposed gene drive as a management tool to control grey squirrels. Now is a good time to talk about this emerging technology because the hopes and concerns of experts, stakeholders and the public can help to determine if or how it might be developed.

To help foster this debate, we made a short research film on gene drive grey squirrels. The film draws on our social science research to show the complexity of the problem of grey squirrel control and invites you to think about whether scientists should develop gene drive squirrels or not.

Project goals

To date, much of the discussion of gene drive has focused on its use in public health, particularly gene drive mosquitoes for malaria control. However, in the last few years, researchers have begun to develop the technology to address conservation challenges, primarily for managing invasive species.

In the UK, policies label grey squirrels an invasive species and they are a controlled animal. Grey squirrels pose a threat to climate and conservation initiatives by damaging trees and they also displace native red squirrels. However, grey squirrels are cute and one of the most seen British mammals. Current management techniques rely heavily on killing squirrels by trapping and shooting, although research is exploring contraception and pine marten introductions too.

Scientists at the University of Edinburgh and the European Squirrel Initiative have proposed gene drive grey squirrels as a new possible management tool. At this early stage, there has been very little engagement with experts involved in invasive species management to understand how gene drives might play a role in conservation, particularly in the UK.

We explore this emerging technology with UK experts in the areas of woodland management, red squirrel conservation, invasive species management, and animal ethics and protection.

 

FUNDERS

Wellcome Trust logo

Wellcome Trust

QUEX Institute

QUEX Institute

The British Academy

The British Academy

 

What we did

In 2021, we held four focus groups with UK experts on grey squirrels in the UK to understand the:

  1. problem of grey squirrels

  2. limitations of existing management tools

  3. potential of gene drives to address these problems; and

  4. the ethical, social, scientific and governance issues

We are currently making a short documentary film to share our findings more widely and stimulate much-needed debate on gene drive as a squirrel management tool and more broadly on gene drive in conservation. 

Activities and outputs

We won an ESRC Festival of Social Science (2022) award to screen the film at the Exeter Phoenix in November 2022

We won a film screening at the prestigious British Academy Summer Showcase 2023 in London June 2023, where our film was screened over 4 days

Should we create gene drive grey squirrels?: Film screening and panel discussion 9th November, Exeter Phoenix Theatre

Talk - ‘Stakeholder views on grey squirrel population control by gene drive technology’ Sarah Hartley and Rob Smith, 9th International Conference on Wildlife Fertility Control, Colorado Springs 2022