11th Jul 2025, by ssrs_admin
It’s halfway through 2025 and we’re celebrating our red squirrel conservation work in Aberdeen.
The history of red and grey squirrels in the North East is a slightly different one to the rest of the country. Let’s take a look at the story so far…
Up until just over 100 years ago, the only squirrels found in Scotland, and the rest of the UK, were our native reds. Then, in 1876, Victorians brought grey squirrels to Cheshire in England, to decorate parks. Naturally spreading from there and with further releases, including across the south of Scotland, grey squirrels rapidly took over, wiping out red squirrels as they went through competition and by carrying the deadly squirrelpox virus.
By the mid-20th Century, greys had completely replaced reds in the central belt, and travelled up Scotland all the way to the Highland Boundary Fault, which runs from Helensburgh to Stonehaven. This natural feature helps prevent greys from spreading across the geological boundary.
In 1971 grey squirrels were brought to a zoo in Aberdeen and, during their first night in the city, escaped. When SSRS was formed in 2009, greys had spread throughout Aberdeen and the surrounding areas, using the rivers Dee and Don as corridors. There were almost no red squirrels left.
Aberdeen was designated as a priority area for the project. The “island” population of grey squirrels here wasn’t connected to other populations in Scotland, so if we were able to remove th ...