For 150 years they have wreaked havoc on Britain’s woods and wildlife, but the destructive reign of the grey squirrel could soon be over — ended by DNA editing to ensure that all future females are born infertile.

Researchers at the Roslin Institute, the genetics laboratory renowned for its 1996 creation of Dolly the Sheep, the world’s first mammal cloned from an adult cell, want to create gene-edited squirrels for eventual release into the wild.

Male greys would be altered to contain a “gene drive” designed to spread relentlessly through the population. The gene would make females that inherited it sterile while males would be unaffected, allowing them to keep spreading it and ensuring the grey’s demise.

One aim is to save the red squirrel,