…marks along the length of it or even collections of cones that have been nibbled at. Cones make up an important bulk of the red squirrel diet so where there are squirrels there is cone debris. Squirrels, like many animals, are left or right handed, and if you have a real eye for detail, you might even be able to… […]
…what you find! Click the link below for the scavenger hunt checklist: DOWNLOAD Try our word search We’ve hidden away 10 squirrel related words, can you find them? Click the links below for the word search puzzle: DOWNLOAD ANSWERS Fill in the blanks Can you help us tell the story of Scotland’s red squirrel by filling in the blanks? Click… […]
…wouldn’t find in the wild? Whatever the reason, it doesn’t seem to cause red squirrels any difficulties fortunately. There are other factors that cause balding in squirrels, such as parasite overload (lots of fleas or ticks), mange or allergies, but they are usually accompanied by signs of inflammation and lesions. There is also Squirrel Pox Virus, which is a serious… […]
…how widespread grey squirrels had become. For the previous 25 years, my wife and I had been living on the edge of a Scots pine forest near Hexham in Northumberland, where for a long period we had plenty of reds visiting our garden. We even organised aerial ropeways to feeders on our window frames, giving us even closer views! Then… […]
…as a field technician and research assistant studying rodent populations and testing two methods for controlling the plague (Yersinia pestis) a.k.a. Black Death. There I gained a lot of hands-on experience trapping and handling rats, mice, squirrels and chipmunks, as well as the odd striped and spotted skunks (striped skunk below). Next, after 2 and a half years away I… […]
…squirrelly competition for seven million years. This evolutionary difference is essentially why the grey squirrels are currently such a great threat to the existence of red squirrels in Britain and Ireland. For seven million years, Eurasian red squirrels evolved with no close ecological competition: there are few tree-dwelling, nut- and seed-eating mammals in temperate Eurasia. Without true competition, the red… […]
…trapping may be squirrels, we also get plenty of birds, which is great as it keeps me on my toes with bird ID! Jays and great spotted woodpeckers are definitely the most common bird species detected on our cameras and they’re surprisingly expressive. Apart from these two species, I’ve recorded at least (carrion) crows, blue-, cole-, and great tits, wrens,… […]
…been taking blood samples from grey squirrels which are then tested for the presence of squirrelpox antibodies. A very small number of grey squirrels have tested positive for squirrelpox antibodies between 2013 and 2020 in the Central Lowlands, the most northerly of which was at Plean, near Bannockburn. It is unclear how the disease arrived here, as we have detected… […]
…any sustainable woodland management plan where grey squirrels are present, particularly in red squirrel priority areas. The Forestry Grant Scheme is a key mechanism for this, however updates to the scheme in line with SSRS recommendations are required in order for it to be fully effective in supporting strategic landscape-wide grey squirrel control efforts It is good to see a… […]
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