Red Squirrels Return to Aberdeen

Red squirrels are returning to parts of Aberdeen where they haven’t been seen in decades, as efforts to control grey squirrels start to take effect.

The news from the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) comes a year after the launch of a project to protect Scotland’s native squirrel by culling greys.

Red squirrels have been sighted in the past six months along the Deeside corridor in the Aberdeen suburbs of Bieldside, Cults and Countesswells.

Dr Mel Tonkin, project manager for Save Scotland’s Red Squirrels (SSRS), said: “This makes us optimistic that it won’t take long for red squirrels to re-establish themselves in Aberdeen’s parks and gardens, once there are not so many grey squirrels.”

Reported in The Herald last week, the three-year SSRS project, run by the SWT, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the Forestry Commission and the Scottish Rural Property and Business Association, aims to show it is possible to stop the decline of red squirrels in northern Scotland and improve habitat conditions to help them thrive.

It seeks to create a “buffer zone” across Scotland where greys are culled, to prevent them spreading into red strongholds further north. Those working on the project are trained in humanely dispatching the animals.
SNH, working with the Forestry Commission, began a control effort in 2007 aimed at pushing migrating grey populations back towards Aberdeen.

As a result, there has been a drop in the number of greys outside the city, including around Dyce, north of Aberdeen. Now, the officers aim to remove the grey squirrel population within the city itself.

The red squirrel was once a common sight across all of mainland Britain but have been eradicated from their natural habitat areas due to the spread of the grey squirrel, a species introduced to Britain in the 19th century.  The presence of greys triggers the rapid decline of red squirrel numbers, as greys outcompete reds for food and habitat as well as carrying squirrelpox virus – a virus lethal to reds which does not harm greys. 

Now only 121,000 are thought to remain in Scotland, accounting for 75% of Britain’s red squirrel population.  Scotland, the SWT explains, is the only haven left for the red squirrels, with areas in the north still remaining grey-free.

Over the next three years SWT aims to:
• protect existing red squirrel populations in the Highlands, Argyll, North-East Scotland and northern Tayside
• improve and share our knowledge and understanding of squirrel management
• increase the involvement of private foresters and woodland owners in conservation efforts for red squirrels
• increase our knowledge of the distribution of squirrels in Scotland and maintain a process for recording and disseminating this information
• promote the project to the public

Find out more here .

The Scottish Wildlife Trust has received £935,998.40 in unrestricted funding from charity lottery the People’s Postcode Lottery to date. Find out more here.