In this blog, we hear from Marlow Bushman, who is part of the Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels team in North East Scotland. As the Community Coordination & Outreach Officer, Marlow provides an insight into the hard work taking place to bring red squirrels back to Aberdeenshire.

When we think of seeing red squirrels, most of us imagine a rural Scottish backdrop with our squirrel leaping between branches of a great Scots pine. Taking in a view like this is delightful and exciting as it is, but now, city centre residents of Aberdeen are getting a similar experience. In the past few months, confirmed sightings have been reported in distinctly central parts of Aberdeen City such as Skene Square, Rosemount, and Hilton.

In the UK, urban environments have been long dismissed as suitable habitats for the red squirrel, and a myth has persevered: that grey squirrels are the only squirrel species able to survive in an urban area.

However, increasing evidence shows that red squirrels live and thrive among built environments where grey squirrels aren’t present. Competing for resources with, and disease spread from, grey squirrels leave red squirrel populations devastated in both rural and urban areas – if this threat is removed, red squirrels can bounce back.  Fortunately, Scottish Wildlife Trust led partnership project Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels (SSRS) has been working diligently to eradicate the grey squirrel population in Aberdeen City since 2009 with great success in recent years – and the red squirrels have noticed.

This year, monitoring surveys and public sightings have yielded just 12 grey squirrel detections in the city, compared with an incredible 2,000 red squirrel detections, many in areas not seen since greys were introduced in the 1970s.

Gordon Milne, a resident in Bridge of Don, saw a red squirrel in his back garden for the first time in May, after 35 years of living there.

This past month, one other member of the public was extremely surprised to see a red squirrel hopping across Ann Street in the city centre. “Initially, I thought it was a small ginger dog running loose!”  Another Aberdonian spotted a red squirrel in their nearby city park for the first time since moving to the area.

Lisa Scott volunteered for the project in 2021 and saw her first red squirrel just this month:

“I put a grey squirrel trap in my garden, provided by SSRS, in the Hilton Campus in Autumn 2021. It felt a little controversial as I knew a neighbour was encouraging the greys by feeding them, and honestly, I quite enjoyed seeing the greys getting up to mischief in my garden, however I knew there was a bigger picture and a long-term goal. Two greys were caught, one in October and another in December 2021…[There were] no more squirrels for almost three years, so it went out of my mind. Then recently, to my amazement, I was in my front garden, when I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. It was a red squirrel, it ran down the lane at the side of my garden! It was exhilarating; I couldn’t believe it.”

Lisa became involved with the project by the encouragement of her father, who has been a committed volunteer since April 2021 in Aberdeen’s Rapid Response Monitoring Network.  He has detected fewer and fewer greys through the years and began seeing red squirrels on nearly every survey he carried out since January 2024.

The success of this project in Aberdeen is entirely dependent on the efforts of volunteers such as Ian and Lisa Scott.  Their hard work is proving fruitful, and they are now able to enjoy red squirrels settling into the same places they call home.

Emma Sheehy, Eradication Scientific Lead for SSRS North East said

“Watching red squirrels reclaim their territory in Aberdeen city has been a been a real driving force for the team of staff and volunteers in Aberdeen.  We’re at a point now where we can be very optimistic about their long-term future here.  However, as we move towards our goal of eradication, we are reliant more than ever on individuals reporting their grey squirrel sightings.”

From the 30 September – 6 October Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels are running their 6^th annual Great Scottish Squirrel Survey, and are encouraging everybody across Scotland (including in Aberdeen) to get outside, explore their local area, and report all sightings of grey and red squirrels to their website.

This is an easy and quick thing to do, and as seen from the success so far in the north east of Scotland, can hugely benefit red squirrels and their recovery. Sightings can be reported to SSRS at: scottishsquirrels.org.uk/squirrel-sightings/

If you’re local to Aberdeen and interested in volunteering and helping the team to detect the last remaining greys in the city, please do email SSRS on: squirrels@scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk.

To find out more about the project, please visit: scottishsquirrels.org.uk/

Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels is a partnership project led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and supported by the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund, managed by NatureScot.