Red squirrels risk becoming extinct in the UK within the next 25 years - that's what the latest government report has warned.
Natural England's "England Red Squirrel Recovery Strategy", published on 14 April, was brutally clear in stating that this would be the outcome in a "do nothing scenario".
But according to the report, more than 50% of the public might oppose killing grey squirrels.
The report makes clear that it is only through ramping up management methods, including kill trapping and shooting, that the red population could be most effectively increased.
The red squirrel population is less than 40,000 in England. Meanwhile, the invasive non-native grey squirrel population has soared to an estimated 2.7 million in the UK.
The grey squirrel, introduced to England in the late 19th century, outcompetes the red squirrels for food and habitat, and carries squirrel pox, to which it is immune to the disease. Since then, the red population has plummeted.
It is not only an issue of protecting an endangered native species - grey squirrels are also hugely damaging to the economy.
It has been estimated that 15% of broadleaf area and 5% of coniferous forest area are damaged by grey squirrels. The costs of timber damage, reduced carbon capture, and replanting - purely because of grey squirrels - was estimated to be £37 million per year, according to a report by the Royal Forestry Society.
Perhaps even more concerningly, a recent survey showed that a third of British children do not know that red squirrels still live in the UK, while one in ten could not even identify one from a photograph.
Red squirrels are not just vanishing from our countryside; they're vanishing from our public consciousness too.
The only way this sorry state of affairs can be reversed, as Natural England's report makes clear, is drastically ramping management efforts across the whole of England.
Alternative control methods such as oral contraceptives for squirrels and squirrelpox vaccines could provide additional bonuses, but these methods are still under development.
Yet an England wide initiative to control squirrels, including lethal methods, would meet with opposition from 55.7% of the UK public, according to the report.
If we truly care about our native red squirrel population, it is clear that decision makers will need to bite the bullet and press on with grey squirrel control, despite public opposition.
Outreach and educational efforts might help to persuade those opposed to grey squirrel management that it is a necessity for red squirrel conservation, the report suggests.
But at the end of the day, the main problem is not how to get the public on board with grey squirrel control - it is the plummeting red squirrel population and how best to reverse the species' decline. And for that to happen, the government will need to take the urgent action recommended, not worry about whether or not the public will be opposed.