Saving the red squirrel

Lord Redesdale and Paul Parker, who have formed the Red Squirrel Protection Partnership (RSPP). They want to exterminate the grey squirrel. "If we called it the grey squirrel annihilation league people might be a bit less sympathetic" Photograph: Gary Calton/Gary Calton

A red squirrel in Kielder Forest, Northumberland. Britain has been home to the red squirrel since the Ice Age, but they have been decimated by squirrel pox, which is carried by greys Photograph: Gary Calton/Gary Calton

Paul Parker, a pest controller, takes aim during a cull of grey squirrels in Northumberland. The pair claim to have cleared England's northernmost country of the rodent Photograph: Gary Calton/Gary Calton

Lord Redesdale holding four dead grey squirrels which were trapped and shot in the north-east. In the two years of its existence, the RSPP has been remarkably successful Photograph: Gary Calton/Gary Calton

Lord Redesdale's recruited army of 900 volunteers has slaughtered 19,500 grey squirrels in the past 18 months Photograph: Gary Calton/Gary Calton

Mrs Sanderson, in Hexham, holds a trap in her garden. At 82, she is the oldest volunteer in the RSPP, and also among its most successful squirrel catchers Photograph: Gary Calton/Gary Calton

Paul Parker recovers a trap containg a grey squirrel Photograph: Gary Calton/Gary Calton

Making traps to capture grey squirrels. New kill traps would dispense with the need for shooting Photograph: Gary Calton/Gary Calton

Paul Parker's dog sniffs a trapped grey squirrel Photograph: Gary Calton/Gary Calton

Another red squirrel in Kielder Forest. The number of grey squirrels in Northumberland has rocketed in recent years, threatening the red squirrel population Photograph: Gary Calton/Gary Calton

'Reg' is a part-time bouncer who has helped Paul Parker with the grey squirrel cull Photograph: Gary Calton/Gary Calton

Lord Redesdale at home cooking grey squirrel. The RSPP supplies a game shop with dead squirrel and a market has developed for the meat Photograph: Gary Calton/Gary Calton

Lord Redesdale at home in Northumberland eating grey squirrel with his family. "Squirrels have no fat and the flesh is sweet" Photograph: Gary Calton/Gary Calton