Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels focuses on one of our most charismatic and well-loved mammals – Scotland’s native red squirrel.
Once the common squirrel across the UK, red squirrels have undergone a catastrophic population decline primarily due to competition for food and living space from the invasive non-native, American grey squirrel. Grey squirrels also carry Squirrelpox – a virus that is lethal to reds but not to greys.
There are estimated to be only 287,000 red squirrels remaining in the UK, around 80% of which are in Scotland. Without concerted and effective action to protect them, the red squirrels that remain in Scotland could disappear within our lifetime.
About the Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels project
Led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels is a partnership project that is working to ensure red squirrels continue to be a part of Scotland’s special native wildlife.
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 in key strategic areas.
Since 2009, this innovative partnership has established that it is possible to halt the decline of red squirrels over a wide area via strategically targeted and co-ordinated landscape-scale grey squirrel control. The initiative has enabled reds to re-establish in many areas.
You can find out more about the work of Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels in episode seven of our Words of the Wild podcast series.
Priority areas
Our work is focused in the priority target areas below, where critical populations of red squirrels are under threats from greys. These target areas are designated by the Scottish Squirrel Group’s 2015-2025 Scottish Strategy for Red Squirrel Conservation, convened by the government’s nature agency, NatureScot.
- North East Scotland: An isolated ‘island’ population of grey squirrels exists in and around Aberdeen City. Our aim is to eradicate this population with help from local residents, and allow red squirrels to thrive once more.
- Central Lowlands: Red squirrels are thriving north of the Highland Line, but their future is threatened. With support from landowners and volunteers we are preventing grey squirrels and squirrelpox virus from spreading further northwards.
- South Scotland: Both squirrel species are found here, and squirrelpox presents a major challenge. Providing strategic support to independent volunteer led groups, we are helping to protect red squirrels in key priority areas.
