…be undertaken by experienced professionals and that the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA) should always be contacted in the first instance upon finding an injured red squirrel. Over to Dawn and Terry… ‘Rusty was brought in to the vets on 20th August after being found on a road. At that point he weighed 80g and… […]
…on the camera! While we do collect pine marten hair regularly (more and more each year, which is great news), we rarely catch them on camera. In this case, it was spotted in a Forestry Commission Scotland woodland, just outside the city of Aberdeen where they had never been recorded previously during our surveys. However, later investigation confirmed that we… […]
…for the pine martens to save. Don’t pine martens eat red squirrels too? Yes, but both are native Scottish species, adapted to live together as part of a balanced woodland ecosystem. Although sad for the individual squirrel, the level of predation on reds does not appear to negatively affect their populations in the long term. However, it should be pointed… […]
…sparse in broadleaf woodlands (where greys can be up to ten times more common), but at least there are few leaves to obscure our view for half of the year. Conifers provide a much better habitat for reds and are more important for them as greys do less well there – but the dense foliage and close spacing of trees… […]
…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… […]
