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In the UK, nonnative grey squirrels have largely overtaken native red squirrels.Peter Byrne/AP
This story was first published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
From Oral contraceptives to proposals to edit their DNA, efforts to control the UK’s invasive grey squirrel population have become increasingly elaborate. However, chefs and conservationists are increasingly embracing a simpler approach to ethical dining. They believe eating them is part of the trend in ethical cooking.
“My original starting point with grey squirrel was taste. But it’s also great for the environment,” says Paul Wedgwood, one of Scotland’s leading chefs, whose restaurant on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile has had grey squirrel on the menu since 2008. Wedgwood has even made haggis using the North American rodent. This has helped drive the extinction in many parts of England, Wales, and the rest of North America.
“It’s mellow, nutty and a bit gamey. It’s just a really nice flavor, and it’s easy to match. Anyone who’s doing rabbit could just easily swap in squirrel,” he says.
Wedgwood isn’t the only chef to put invasive species on their menu. Jesse Griffiths is the owner and chef at Dai Due restaurant, Austin, Texas. is encouraging Americans to hunt and eat more of the millions of feral hogs that cause billions of dollars of damage to farmland. Michelin-starred chef in the Bahamas José Andrés is serving up Invasive Lionfish to help protect reefs in the Caribbean. Chefs are welcome at Fallow, London. You are planning to cook king crab, the latest arrival on British shores that has sparked fears for native brown crab and scallop populations.
The concept of “invasivorism” was developed more than two decades ago by Joe Roman, a conservation biologist at the University of Vermont. “With this idea, humans are a form of biological control. Humans are amazing predators: whether it’s eating the grey squirrel in Britain or the European green crab in the US, we know eating them can have an impact on populations,” he says.
The spread of Invasive species is one of the main drivers of extinctions, and biodiversity loss. on Earth, according to leading scientists. While not all non-native organisms are invasive, those that do become invasive often outcompete native wildlife and cause financial and ecological damage. Examples include mice on Gough Island in the south Atlantic where the rodents eat albatross chicks in their nests, and the Burmese python in Florida’s Everglades, which has devastated mammal populations. Invasive species can also be costly: Queen’s University Belfast This week, a study showed that they have caused $1.2 billion in damage worldwide since the 1960s. This bill is set to spiral this century.
Roman runs the website EatTheInvaders.org, hosting recipes for invasive species in the US that include the green iguana, wakame seaweed, and nutria or coypu—a river rat.
“We need to say from the beginning that the goal is to reduce these populations—not to create a market for them. We don’t want people to say ‘wow, this Crayfish is great. I wish we had it in this river system’ or something like that,” Roman says. “In this time of globalization, we’re moving animals, plants and fungi around all the time that have ecological impacts. We are trying to work against that.”
Critics are wary of how effective invasivorism can be at achieving its aims, with evidence the “eat them to beat them” approach can have the opposite effect for some species. A 2020 paper on catching invasive signal crayfish populations in North Yorkshire, where Britain’s only native crayfish is being driven out, found that traps were likely ineffective and helped spread the crayfish. Gordon Ramsay and other chefs promote crayfish, but the report shows that less than 2.5 percent were large enough to be caught using traditional traps. This could cause harm to other creatures.
Then there’s the question of scale. The Wild Meat CompanyThe company sells game from Suffolk, England. It sold around 10,000 grey squirrels last yea, not enough to satisfy the UK’s population of 2.7 million.
The 2014 US Census is available here Review found that while eating invasive species can reduce populations and raise public awareness, it might inadvertently provide disincentives to their eradication. It included a 11-point strategy and local laws about harvesting species to use invasivorism efficiently.
Proponents recognize that it is impossible to transform all invasive fauna and flora into gourmet food. However, they insist that taste is key to their success. At Miya’s, a sustainable sushi restaurant located in New Haven, Connecticut. Bun Lai, the head chef of, created a specialized menu for invasive species and was awarded the White House champions award in 2016 because of his sustainable food.
Kanibaba, a dish made using invasive Asian shorecrabs, is served by Miya chef Bun Lai.
Bun Lai
“If we ate invasive animals such as boar and nutria instead of cows, we would have a significant impact on climate change because of their greenhouse gas emissions,” says Lai, who now runs sustainable sushi pop-ups after the closure of the restaurant in 2021.
“From a swamp rodent called nutria to python, poisonous cane toad and a plethora of invasive plants, I have hunted, fished and foraged many invasive species. People’s tastes are constantly changing,” he says. “In my sushi platters for decades, I’d include non-conventional ingredients. Rather than tuna, farmed salmon, eel, and yellowtail, I’d use invasive carp with black soldier fly larvae, invasive blue catfish, invasive lionfish, edible weeds, invasive plants, and organic vegetables and fruit. For years, people would tell me every day that the sushi I was making wasn’t sushi, but over time it became more accepted.”
The UK will soon find out if Japanese are accepted. knotweed vodka and muntjac deer burgers become part of the measures to limit invasive species. Not all invasive animals are classed as game, therefore the public is not free to shoot, trap and consume every invasive species. For fine dining in Scotland, grey squirrel is a favourite.
“The demand is there from customers,” says Wedgwood. “I had a guy fly in from Switzerland who ordered a squirrel tasting menu. A six-course menu … just with squirrel!”
Squirrel rack. Confit jersey royal potatoes. Carrot puree. Wild garlic.
Recipe by Paul Wedgwood Serves 2.
2 squirrel racks—room temperature
2 jersey royal potatoes
1 clove garlic
1 sprig rosemary
500ml goose oil
1 large carrot
50g butter, Diced in small pieces
2 wild garlic leaves
50ml oil
Salt and pepper
To add color, peel the potatoes. Transfer the potatoes to a small saucepan. Add the garlic, rosemary, and enough goose fat to completely cover them. Place on medium heat. Bring the fat to simmer. Reduce heat to low and simmer for approximately 30 minutes, or until the potatoes become soft and tender.
Peel the carrot and cut it. Place the carrot in a small saucepan and season with salt. Cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook the carrot until soft. Drain the cooking liquor and keep it aside. Blend the carrot with the butter in a hand blender. Season the carrot with salt, white pepper, and butter with the rest of the cooking liquor. If necessary, adjust the consistency with the cooking liquor. Leave somewhere warm.
Blend the wild garlic in the oil and pass it through a fine sieve.
Heat two tablespoons of potato confit fat in a small saucepan until it starts to smoke. Turn down the heat and carefully add the squirrel racks. Bake for about 2 minutes. Season the racks with salt and pepper and place them somewhere warm.
Add a spoonful carrot puree to a plate. Place the potatoes on an absorbent towel for a few seconds. Season the dish with salt and add to a plate. Place the squirrel rack on top. Drizzle with wild garlic oil.
