CAMBRIDGE, Md. - Five Delmarva Fox Squirrels will be relocated from Maryland to Delaware.
At the Eqypt Road Regional Park in Cambridge and in Dorchester county, there is a good number of Delmarva fox squirrels. But Delaware's population is dwindling. Which is why the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), Maryland's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) have been working together.
The translocation program started in 2020 and will continue into 2024 where some of Maryland's Delmarva fox squirrels will be relocated to specific parks in Delaware. Within the years squirrels have been taken three different locations. Those being the Assawoman Wildlife Area, Redden State Forest, and Trap Pond State Park. The squirrels are trapped and released in the fall and spring seasons and only 30 squirrels are allowed to be taken each year.
These squirrels used to be on the federally endangered list. Fortunately, they got off the list back in 2015. But there are still areas where they are scarce like in Delaware.
Holly Niederriter with DNREC says, "The the bulk of them are in Maryland and they were delisted several years ago because their populations had recovered enough, mostly in Maryland, to be taken off the endangered species list. But they were still quite rare in Delaware with only two known populations."
Gwen Brewer with DNR says the reason for the relocation is to disperse the populations in case of devastation. Such as loss of habitat, wildfires, or predators.
Brewer says, "It's always a good thing when we have populations that are scattered around. There can be a natural disaster and number of things that could happen in one place that really puts a hit on that particular population. So the more we have kind of these small populations scattered around, it can really help with making sure that species continues to do well."
So within this program between the states, 15 squirrels are collected in the fall and 15 are collected in the spring. Brewer says trapping and relocating of the five Delmarva fox squirrels should begin very soon at the Egypt Road Park in Cambridge.