Our New Furry Team Join the Fight for Red Squirrels in Aberdeen City
We’re really excited to be welcoming a few new members to our team in Aberdeen – two specially trained scent detection dogs and their dedicated handler! Over the past few months, we’ve been working with Conservation K9 Consultancy (CK9C), who have been training these incredible dogs to recognise and alert to the scent of grey squirrels.
Dogs have an amazing sense of smell, at least 100,000 times more sensitive than ours – and they’re completely unbiased, meaning they won’t falsely detect squirrels that aren’t there. They are also trained to provide a passive indication, meaning that they will not physically interact with the grey squirrels. Instead, they will alert their handler with a specific signal to indicate that they have detected the target odour. This approach keeps the dogs, grey squirrels, and all other wildlife safe during surveys.
Our scent detection team will be working across Aberdeen City and key surrounding areas to sniff out any remaining grey squirrels. Thanks to the hard work of the SSRS North East team, only a few greys are left in the city – a fantastic milestone already achieved!
Tarka (left) and Sika, the newest members of the SSRS team. (c) Libby Welbourn
This work is part of the Grey Squirrel Eradication Programme, which includes three important phases:
- Eradication: finding, trapping, and removing the last grey squirrels.
- Confirmation: checking that the city is grey squirrel–free.
- Biosecurity: keeping watch to prevent any re-invasion.
Our detection team adds an extra layer of detection to our current efforts to help keep Aberdeen City red squirrel territory!
Meet the team!
Louise and Henry. (c) Louise Wilson
Dog Trainer and CK9C Founder, Louise has worked with detection dogs in the UK and internationally for over 20 years, across a variety of disciplines including explosives, contraband, illegal wildlife trade and conservation detection. She founded Conservation K9 Consultancy over 10 years ago and has a dedicated team of handlers and conservation canines working across the UK, in a variety of contexts, including survey for protected and invasive species, conducting biosecurity checks on research vessels and supporting Wildlife Crime investigations. Louise also teaches many workshops and training courses, both in the UK and internationally to develop dog and handler teams. Her detection dog Henry recently won the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) 2025 ‘Animal of the Year’ award for his work in conservation detection.
Scent detection team! Libby with Sika and Tarka. (c) Libby Welbourn
Dog Handler Libby has been interested in wildlife since childhood and was always fascinated by Scottish wildlife, dreaming of visiting Scotland’s Caledonian pine forest to spot species such as red squirrels, pine martens and crested tit. After moving to the Highlands from the East Midlands in early 2019 she has worked across Scotland as part of her role as an ecologist. Through this she began to recognise the value that conservation detection dogs could bring to both frontline conservation projects and ecological consultancy work (for development) as a non-biased survey method. She began training her own dogs with Conservation K9 Consultancy in 2022. Libby’s favourite red squirrel memory is of watching two squirrels scampering through the canopy during a trail run at Darnaway Forest in Moray – for a few seconds it felt as if human, dogs and squirrel were all running together!
Sika enjoying some time off in the hills. (c) Libby Welbourn
Sika is a four year old Australian Kelpie. She is athletic, intelligent and independent. When ‘off duty’ she is a true trail dog and loves exploring the landscapes of northern Scotland, thriving on long hikes and mountain runs.
Tarka posing for the camera. (c) Libby Welbourn
Two-year old Tarka is Aberdeenshire born and bred. A typical springer spaniel, she is strong, energetic and affectionate. She lives up to her namesake and is a water lover, enjoying a good swim at any opportunity! She is never far away from a soft toy at home.
On their rest days both dogs enjoy a good snooze by the log burner!
CK9C have been involved with conservation projects all over the world, training specialist dogs and handlers for including other mammal detection work, island biosecurity, bird carcass detection and even wildlife crime. Find out more about CK9C and the other projects they’re involved with on their website.
If you see the scent detection team out and about in Aberdeen, please give them space and allow the dogs to carry out their work.