As a boost to their conservation, more than 30 red squirrels were released into the 13,355 haDundonnell Estate in Wester Ross in January. The scheme to re-establish them in the area was the idea of the Rice family, who own the Dundonnell Estate, with advice from wildlife consultant Roy Dennis. The release was featured in Widlife Extra.
Students at a school in Stubbington, Hampshire in the south of England have been puzzled by sightings of a purple couloured, grey squirrel which they have named Pete. There are also several photographs giving authority the story. The reason behind the squirrels fancy coat colour seems to be related to its behaviour of going in […]
The 5th International Colloquium on Arboreal Squirrels will be held between July 31 to August 4, 2009 at Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. As per previous colloquia in the US, England and India, this meeting will serve to bring together researchers from around the world that work on all aspects of arboreal squirrels. […]
Recently a grey squirrel has been seen near Inverness in the Highlands, Scotland in the heart of native, red squirrel country. It is thought possible that the animal may have got there on the back of a lorry (see BBC News story news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7364769.stm). Hopefully, there is only one animal and it is not carrying squirrelpox […]
A Prevost’s squirrel (Callosciurus prevosti) normally found in lowland and montane forests in Southeast Asia, has turned up in the garden of a resident in the City of Leeds in northern England. The attractive animal, with black back and tail, white sides, and reddish-brown underside and limbs has probably escaped from a pet shop or […]
The coastal pine woodlands at the National Trust Reserve at Formby hold one of the few remaining strongholds for red squirrels in northern England. However, recent news that the deadly squirrelpox virus, carried by alien grey squirrels, has entered the population is very worrying for their continuing survival. Walkers and local residents have been asked […]
A red squirrel was seen by passengers on a pleasure boat on Lake Ullswater in the Lake District in northern England; the animal was at least 270 m from the shore. The squirrel hitched a lift on the boat and returned to shore unscathed. For more on this story see news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/7096816.stm
A sick red squirrel with signs of squirrelpox virus was found near Lockerbie in south-west Scotland (20 miles from the border with England) on Tuesday 8th May. The squirrel was killed and tested at the Moredun Institute in Edinburgh, who confirmed the presence of the deadly virus believed to be carried by grey squirrels. This […]
Squirrels have bitten to death a stray dog which was barking at them in a Russian park. This is a story reported by the BBC News on the 1st December 2006 and has just come to the notice of the SquirrelWeb team. Black squirrels apparently attacked a dog in a park in the village of […]
Marta López-Darias The ecology of the invasion of the Barbary Ground Squirrel on Fuerteventura Island (Canary Islands) Background In 1965, the Barbary Ground Squirrel (Atlantoxerus getulus), a rodent native to Morocco and small areas of Algeria, was introduced onto Fuerteventura Is. Two squirrels were brought in as pets, but they were soon released and the […]