The problems of plastic pollution and their horrific effects on the environment have been highlighted in recent months, with many examples of animals from whales, dolphins, fish and turtles to deer and birds that have been directly affected by discarded plastic. Recently, a red squirrel was found by a busy road in Scotland (A939 near […]
Despite an outbreak of squirrelpox virus (SPQV) in 2017, red squirrels in the city of Bangor in North Wales have increased in 2018. SQPV is carried by grey squirrels and invariably fatal to red squirrels (The Bangor Aye). Red Squirrels Trust Wales has embarked on a project (Painting the Town Red) to rid the city […]
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, The Vincent Wildlife Trust, and the Forestry Commission have published a report on the feasibility of reintroducing pine martens into the Forest of Dean in the county of Gloucestershire in the west of England. The Forest of Dean is ~110 square kilometres of mixed woodland and has a history of extensive tree […]
The Super Squirrels is a BBC TV Natural World documentary programme first shown on 19th June 2018 and currently can be viewed on BBC iPlayer until 18th July. It covers why squirrels (tree squirrels, flying squirrels, ground squirrels) are such a widespread and successful group of mammals. The programme includes items on squirrel caching behaviour and their […]
A reminder that the 8th International Colloquium on Squirrels, will take place soon, from June 4th to June 8th 2018 in NUI Galway on the west Coast of Ireland. A draft programme with details of keynote speakers and all oral presentations is now available.
A new book written by Craig Shuttleworth and Liz Halliwell called Red Squirrels In My Garden and published by the European Squirrel Initiative is now available as an e-book PDF and can be downloaded here. Building on their wide experience of studying red squirrels, and particularly in recent years on the Isle of Anglesey and more widely […]
A recent article by Iloma Amos in The Scotsman discusses how releasing pine martens can help keep numbers of alien grey squirrels down, which in turn allows native red squirrels to prosper.
Can you help? Nancy Moncrief from the Virginia Museum of Natural History, USA carries out research on the morphology and genetics of North American Sciurus tree squirrels. Nancy is currently looking at a whole-genome study on Sciurus carolinensis and S. niger and is seeking data from a third tree squirrel species. but there is nothing on Genbank. So, if […]
A recent paper by Emma Sheehy and colleagues (Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2018) has provided empirical evidence that, as pine martens extend their range in the north of Britain, alien grey squirrel numbers fall. In contrast, native red squirrel populations are not affected and can recover from the competitive effects of […]
A recent paper published in the scientific journal Animal Behaviour by Pizza Chow and colleagues has demonstrated that alien grey squirrels are slightly better than native red squirrels at solving certain problems involving the removal of hazelnuts from transparent plastic containers. The study has attracted a lot of attention in the media (International Business Times, UPI, Sky News, Channel […]