SQUIRRELS IN ESSEX 67
Map 1
longer, certainly to the end of the decade (T. A. Lording). This means that
the last Red Squirrels were seen in Epping Forest a quarter of a century
after the appearance of the first Greys.
In the 1959 Squirrel Survey Lloyd (1962) recorded that Red Squirrel
reports were common in east and north-east Essex but thereafter the rate
of decline was accelerated, and since 1965 records have been confined to
the north-east corner of the county, a few Red Squirrels being seen in
gardens around Colchester, and from some of the surrounding villages. In
the next two years colonies to the north, west and south of Colchester also
disappeared rapidly. The last record from these areas is that of a Red
Squirrel seen in Donyland Ranges in 1969 (although efforts by the
Mammal Group to record this species at Donyland in 1968 had failed,
only large numbers of Greys being seen).
Post-1970 Red Squirrel Records
There are very few post-1970 Red Squirrel records (Map 2, Table 1),
and most of these lie to the east of Colchester. However, three reliable
records were made in the Danbury area in 1971, two being made by
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food field officers in the parishes of
Woodham Walter and Woodham Mortimer on the Warren Golf Course,
and one in a walnut tree in a garden at Little Baddow by G. Pyman. It
appears that a small number of Red Squirrels were living in this area, but
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