A serious debate needs to be had over whether the island could help to rescue the British red squirrel.

Environment Minister Geoffrey Boot said that it is possible the island could host an ’experimental small population’ of the endangered animals.

The red squirrel has been listed on the UK’s red list for endangered species, in part due to the grey squirrel.

Greys compete more successfully than red squirrels for food and habitat, they are larger and more robust, and can digest seeds with high tannin content, such as acorns, more efficiently. This forces reds into other areas where they can find it more difficult to survive.

Greys also transmit a squirrelpox virus which can kill reds. Once infected, reds often die of starvation or dehydration.

Mr Boot told the Manx Independent that DEFA was approached by the Countryside Restoration Trust to explore the possibility of some reds being moved to the island.

The island is attractive to the CRT due to it being a ’biosecure’ area for reds to live and hopefully grow in number. Mr Boot said the CRT would be responsible for transporting and setting up a habitat for the reds, if there were allowed to come here.

However, this has been criticised by Manx Wildlife Trust, with the charity saying it could harm the island’s ecosystem. A spokesman said: ’We do not feel there is a conservation reason to bring them here’.

And added: ’There is a risk that they will have a detrimental effect on our native wildlife, they are known to predate on the nests of small birds.

’There are numerous examples of small island wildlife populations and ecosystems being very fragile to new introductions. Finally, the proposal would take resources away from focussing on our existing conservation projects for native Manx species.’

If reds were introduced, it appears likely that one of the island’s glens would make the most suitable home for them, but Mr Boot said that some people ’may have jumped the gun’ in objecting before a full exploration of the proposal has been done.