Why are some squirrels losing so much hair in the spring that parts of them are completely bald?
Every year in April to May we get a flurry of queries relating to red squirrels that have lost large parts of their coat, leaving large areas of their body totally hairless. Often it looks like the squirrel has taken off a jacket to reveal nothing underneath. … read more
Spring is the best time to look for squirrels - squirrels are active with mating chasing and young squirrels to feed and with no leaves on the trees yet, they are easy to spot. Our annual Spring Survey is underway but we need YOUR HELP to record squirrel activity in your local woods or in your garden. Visit our website to report your squirrel sightings and help put RED (and grey) on the map. … read more
The report from last year's surveys is now available to download, for those of you who have not seen it yet.
In Spring of 2016 a magnificent 222 tetrads, each with 4 feeder-boxes, were completed across our project areas - that's 2,664 hair samples! The coverage we achieve with our surveys is in large measure down to the amazing volunteer effort that goes into looking after the boxes and collecting in the hair samples.
Spring in southern Scotland is on the cusp of springing. Leaf buds bulge on trees, and daffodil bulbs are nudging each other, encouraging one another to launch a flower shoot. Red Squirrels will now have the first litters of young in the breeding dreys, and females may spend more time in the drey than at other times. … read more
The Scottish Wildlife Trust has been awarded a grant of £2.46 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels – Developing Community Action project.
Over the next five years Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels will enlist many more volunteers from communities in our three key regions to carry out practical work to protect and strengthen red squirrel populations in their local area, and in turn safeguard squirrels across Scotland.
We aim to provide high quality training and support to hundreds of local people and land managers to take on a vital role in the long–term protection of the country’s red squirrels.
Image copyright: Raymond Leinster … read more
Christmas dinner for squirrels - what to do and what NOT to do!
Image copyright: Steve Gardner … read more
As we prepare our special flexible-waisted ‘January trousers’ ahead of the Christmas eating onslaught, our favourite redhead has other ideas. … read more
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