Great Scottish Squirrel Survey 2023
The Great Scottish Squirrel Survey returns for its fifth year this autumn. Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels – winner of the 2019 Conservation Award category in SLE’s Helping it Happen Awards – is calling on people all over Scotland to explore outdoors and look out for tufted ears and bushy tails between 2-8 October 2023 (National Red Squirrel Week).
SLE is a proud partner in the Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels (SSRS) project led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust, which is working in priority areas, with the help of landowners and local volunteers across Scotland, to protect red squirrels from the spread of the invasive non-native grey squirrel.
SSRS monitors squirrel populations all year round; but autumn remains a particularly rewarding time of year for squirrel-spotting. Squirrels are often more visible as they busily forage the autumn harvest in preparation for the winter ahead.
Although once widespread, there are now only around 160,000 red squirrels remaining across the UK, over 75% of which are found here in Scotland, many of them on estates. However, their numbers have fallen drastically in recent decades. This is largely due the spread of the non-native grey squirrel, which was first introduced from North America in the late 1800s. Grey squirrels also carry squirrelpox, a virus that doesn’t harm them but is lethal to reds.
SSRS was formed to reverse this decline by encouraging community action in monitoring, surveying, and controlling grey squirrel populations, increasing public awareness, and connecting more people with nature. SSRS aims to ensure red squirrels continue to have a home in Scotland, and at SLE we encourage our members, and the wider public, to take part in the survey.
Landowner cooperation is crucial to achieving the landscape-scale protection Scotland’s red squirrels need. SSRS can offer advice on managing woodland for the benefit of red squirrels, grey squirrel control best practice and, where eligible, accessing funding for control work via the Scottish Government’s Forestry Grant Scheme. Over a hundred landowners in priority areas are already signed up to the scheme, with many others participating in grey squirrel control on a voluntary basis. Populations across the Central Lowlands have stabilised, with Forestry Grant Scheme estates such as Argaty and Luss seeing red squirrels return after years of absence.
Anyone can take part in the Great Scottish Squirrel Survey by reporting sightings of both red and grey squirrels throughout the week. Each sighting creates a snapshot of the situation, helping the project understand how populations are changing over time and to decide where to focus its conservation efforts.
More than 500 volunteers are currently engaged in red squirrel conservation work through SSRS. One of the simplest ways anyone in Scotland can help is by reporting red and grey squirrel sightings on the project website, and last year a record-breaking 8400 sightings helped SSRS monitor the situation.
The Great Scottish Squirrel Survey week will feature a programme of events across the country as well as self-guided opportunities. More information can be found at scottishsquirrels.org.uk/great-scottish-squirrel-survey.
I am very lucky to live in an area within Angus where red squirrels thrive. It is a great delight to see them on a daily basis. Don’t forget about Red Squirrel Appreciation Day on 21 January, which is a day to celebrate and promote a much-loved part of Scotland’s wildlife!
To find out more and record your squirrel sightings, visit scottishsquirrels.org.uk
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