A 2017 survey by Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels (SSRS) has indicated that red squirrels in Scotland have stabilised throughout much of the country, although there are regional differences. For example, there have been gains in the north-east around Aberdeen where grey squirrels have been extensively culled, and gains around Loch Lomand and the Trossachs National Park, […]
Recently the UK Government has stressed out the need to control grey squirrels to prevent bark-stripping damage to trees. The BBC Programme, Daily Politics, debated the issue on 30/1/18 with Craig Shuttleworth from Bangor University, and Natalia Doran from the group Urban Squirrels (see a clip BBC News).
A new 354 ha forest is to be planted at Doddington North Moor, in Northumberland in the north of England over the next two to three years. The Forestry Commission have approved plans for planting >600,000 trees,; these will include 146 ha of Sitka spruce, 72 ha of native broadleaves and 46 ha of Scots […]
Police in Sea Girt, New Jersey apprehended a squirrel on Saturday morning accused of vandalising the annual Christmas Lights display (IBTimes, India, UK PressFrom, MSN). Whilst this probably results from some cheeky wire nibbling by the grey squirrel; the picture of what looks suspiciously like a Eurasian red squirrel that accompanies some of these reports […]
Over 80 red squirrels moved from various parts of Scotland to areas in the north west Highlands which did not have squirrels, are doing well and starting to spread into new areas (BBC News). The relocations were first carried out in spring 2016 and spring 2017. The project is led by Trees for Life.
Studies on a ~1000-year-old skull of a Medieval woman from Hoxne in the East of England by scientists from the University of Cambridge, showed signs that she had suffered from leprosy. Similar signs of the same strain of leprosy have been found in skeletal remains from Denmark and Sweden from the same period. It is […]
A poxvirus called BerSQPV has been isolated from red squirrels near Berlin in Germany. Several abandoned weak young red squirrels were given to a squirrel sanctuary in 2015 and 2016. Each one showed some signs similar to squirrelpox virus in red squirrels in Britain and Ireland including exudative and erosive-to-ulcerative dermatitis and scabs to the ears, […]
The Grey Squirrel: Ecology & Management of an Invasive Species in Europe(2016) Eds. Craig Shuttleworth, Peter Lurz & John Gurnell. European Squirrel Initiative, Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, UK. ISBN-10: 0954757645; ISBN-13: 978-0954757649. This book can be ordered from European Squirrel Initiative, 26 Rural Innovation Centre, Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, CV8 2LG using this form. From the cover […]
There have been several recent reports in the media of a family of at least four white ‘grey’ squirrels living in the Barnton area of Edinburgh, Scotland. White morphs, which are not the same as alibinos with red eyes, result from a gene mutation that codes for pigmentation. They are rare in the UK. See: […]
An EU funded and National Lottery Sciurus Life project is launched that will enable local communities across the north of England and Wales to become involved in conserving the red squirrel. The Sciurius Life project aims are to: Develop mechanisms to prevent the unintentional introduction of grey squirrels to currently uncolonised woodland landscapes; Develop early warning/rapid response mechanisms to ensure the island of Anglesey in North Wales is not recolonised; Develop rapid response mechanisms to mitigate the impacts of grey squirrels in urban woodlands with high biodiversity and tourism value; Develop early warning systems to detect grey squirrels in sparsely populated rural landscapes; Develop more efficient strategic mechanisms to evolve community-based grey squirrel management; Quantify the financial and community-based resources needed to achieve regional eradication; […]