…in situ. Complete your Tetrad Data Sheets, including your volunteer hours and collected stickies, posting these in the addressed pre-paid envelope provided. If you have been storing bait, you are welcome to use this in your own garden. For any other equipment you have such as cameras and spray bottles, please keep hold of these for now. When Covid-19 restrictions… […]
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…Our hopes and aims for next phase are ambitious, but ones that we absolutely can realise with increased landscape-scale investment from partners, stakeholders, landowners, and local community involvement. We are incredibly grateful to everyone already involved in red squirrel conservation across the country and look forward to bringing more people and organisations onboard with this important and vital work.” Dr… […]
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…Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels summarises the methods, achievements, challenges, and crucial lessons learned over the five-year nation-wide endeavour, and outlines recommendations to ensure a legacy of continued successful red squirrel conservation in Scotland into the future. The project aimed to find sustainable and affordable ways by which to halt the decline, and enable reestablishment in some areas, of Scotland’s red… […]
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…commercial conifers – to red squirrels. The researchers, together with Ulster Wildlife, bring into question red squirrel conservation strategies that focus on the planting of such forests. Scotland’s conifer forests In Scotland, non-native conifer forests are planted for commercial purposes. By the 1930s red squirrel populations were in serious decline in the UK, but the extensive conifer planting that… […]
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…is one of the remaining red squirrel strongholds in England. Working closely with the Lancashire Wildlife Trust and their Red Squirrel Project Officer, we carried out live-capture trapping to record population demographics (e.g. numbers of males/females, adults/juveniles, and breeding individuals), insert PIT tags (a type of microchip, similar to those used for pet cats and dogs, for identifying individuals), and… […]
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…red squirrel is advised not to approach it, but instead contact the project for advice. Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels is a partnership project led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and supported by the Scottish Government and The National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players, along with other partners. For further information please contact Nicole Still, nstill@scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk, 07423 028689… […]
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…project’s spring surveys in both 2020 and 2021. These annual systematic surveys, which used baited squirrel-hair sampling boxes at over 200 specific locations, provided robust distribution data for both red and grey squirrels that was invaluable for comparing the fortunes of squirrels from year-to-year. Project Manager Dr Mel Tonkin said: “Without the spring survey data, we need the help of… […]
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…year for the species. The boom follows an exceptional beech seed crop last autumn, leading to earlier and more productive breeding this spring, and lockdown prevented the early intervention that would normally have contained this increased production. The widespread reporting of red squirrels in this survey, run in September after work resumed, gives us comfort that the red squirrel has… […]
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…which was first introduced from North America by people in the late 1800s. Grey squirrels also carry squirrelpox, a virus that doesn’t harm them but is deadly to reds. With the help of partners, landowners and local volunteers, the project is monitoring squirrel numbers across Scotland, managing the impact of squirrelpox, and helping to combat the spread of grey squirrels… […]
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…moments to complete. This small success with potentially far-reaching protective significance would not have been possible without the support of the local community. So on behalf of the Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels Tayside Team, we would like to thank everyone who has been our eyes and ears on the ground. Together, we can protect Perthshire’s red squirrels for the future…. […]
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