Red squirrels became extinct in Portugal in the 16th century, probably as a result of hunting and deforestation. Now, recent news reports (Portuguese American Journal, The Portugal News Online) indicate that it is making a return. Red squirrels moved across from northwest Spain in the 1980s and sightings suggest it has now reached as far […]
On 18th March 2014, Oliver Heald, the Solicitor General, informed a government committee on deregulation: “The order requires occupiers to report the presence of grey squirrels on their land to facilitate the eradication of that species. However, it is no longer considered feasible to eradicate grey squirrels, so the requirement to report their presence on […]
A study recently published in PLOS ONE (also see Publications Page) by a team of leading researchers led by Quercus, the biodiversity and conservation research centre at Queen’s University, Belfast, indicates that the virus could be spread from grey squirrel to grey squirrel or grey squirrel to red squirrel in various ways. The virus, which […]
A recent study by a team of scientists led by Prof. Anna Meredith (Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh) has found that the red squirrels on the Isle of Arran are fit and in good health with no signs of the presence of squirrelpox virus. Arran is one of 19 Scottish red […]
Some 10% of the red squirrels captured at the National Trust’s Red Squirrel Reserve at Formby, Lancashire in recent years have had antibodies to squirrelpox virus in their blood. Red squirrels at the Reserve were hit badly by an outbreak of pox in 2008, and the population has been recovering since then (BBC News) The […]
In October 2012, five red squirrels (one female and four males), were transported by helicopter from the British Wildlife Centre in Surrey, England to the Island of Tresco (297 ha) in the Scilly Isles off the coast of Cornwall in SW England. The aim is to produce an island safe haven for the animals. A […]
Red Squirrels Northern England (RSNE) have recently published the Spring 2013 Report of their standardised squirrel monitoring programme across the north of England. The good news is that there has been a 7% increase in tetrads (2 km by 2 km squares) reporting the presence of red squirrels since last year and an 18% decline in […]
Numbers of red squirrels seen on the Isle of Wight appear to have fallen this year. In a BBC News Hampshire and Isle of Wight article, it has been suggested that this results from a combination of the wet summer in 2012 affecting the survival of young animals, an increase in the number of buzzards […]
The 7th International Colloquium on Arboreal Squirrels will be held at the Finnish Museum of Natural History, LUOMUS at the University of Helsinki. Finland, on June 1–5, 2015. Further details can be found here.
In his introductory remarks to a conference about red squirrels held at Exeter University on 19th April 2013, Richard Benyon, the Environment Minister, called for a sustainable and long term solution to stop the decline of the British red squirrel – see the report in the Western Morning News. The meeting attracted over 120 delegates from Britain, Ireland and Europe […]