Red zone to aid squirrels
Moves to curb the spread of `greys’
An initiative aimed at protecting Scotland’s threatened red squirrel population hopes to create a red-only zone within Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park.
Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels (SSRS) aims to stop the ongoing replacement of red squirrels by the more dominant greys.
Grey squirrels carry the squirrelpox virus which is fatal for red squirrels.
Following the publication of a Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels spring survey 2017, Scottish Wildlife Trust conservation officer for Argyll, Trossachs and Stirling Mary-Anne Collis said: “We are putting extra effort into monitoring the health of the local grey squirrels, so that we can detect any occurrences of the deadly squirrelpox virus and take action to prevent it reaching the red populations.
“One of our aims is to try and create a red squirrel-only zone in the National Park.
“We are seeing that as we remove grey squirrels from areas reds are moving back in, so we’re getting closer to making this possible.”
The survey pointed out however that less change is detectable in Argyll and Trossachs and Tayside as these areas are ‘subject to continuous replacement of removed grey squirrels coming from the high density grey populations to the south.’
Ms Collis explained that Stirling district has always had a mix of red and grey squirrels.
She added: “From our surveys and the help of local sightings, we are beginning to get a better picture of how they are distributed around the area, helping us know where to focus our efforts.
“There are a lot more areas where reds and greys overlap than we initially thought. The area to the north west [of Stirling district] towards the National Park has been particularly encouraging for the project, with reds moving into areas where they haven’t been seen for a long time. However, there is still a lot of work to do.
“The survey results also show that grey squirrels continue to spread north west towards the National Park.”
The SSRS Spring 2017 survey states: ‘Overall we see a picture of red squirrels maintaining or increasing their occurrence since the beginning of the surveys, but a mixed picture for the occurrence of grey squirrels: a positive change towards decreased grey squirrel range for the northern half of Scotland contrasts with expanding grey squirrel distribution in south Scotland.”
To help the project, sightings of both squirrel species can be reported at scottishsquirrels.org.uk
There are a lot more areas where reds and greys overlap