Restoration Red

Living Uplands spoke to many groups involved in restoration projects to save the Red Squirrel. Although a cherished British mammal, the Red Squirrel has been under pressure from the invasive Grey Squirrel for many years.

As the grey population expanded across the UK and Ireland, the Red Squirrel survived in isolated pockets.

The north American Grey Squirrel carries a virus that is deadly to its British cousin.

The North American Grey Squirrel carries a virus that is deadly to the native British Red Squirrel.

The Grey is also able to survive in far greater numbers in the same area as a Red Squirrel. An acre of habitat for a Red Squirrel could equally provide habitat for up to two dozen Greys. Greys eat younger fruit, eliminating forage for the Reds.

The Grey is also bad news for woodland. Young trees of around ten years maturity provide crowns of fresh leaf food that the Greys will devour, damaging growth. It is estimated that Grey Squirrels can damage around ten percent of a young tree plantation - stunting grown and future carbon capture.

Although there is a great deal of talk about the possibility of a contraceptive that might suppress grey populations, our research suggested this is still many years away from reality.

The only agreed means of controlling Grey populations to assure a Red Squirrel population is to remove the Grey Squirrel as a threat.

Living Uplands is aware of a small number of Red Squirrel populations in the Weardale Uplands. We wanted to better understand the populations of Grey Squirrels to take a long view of a larger project to create a Red Zone across the uplands to keep Greys out and better protect neighbouring counties from sterling work being undertaken there to build Red populations.

The small project, generously funded by Northumbria Water's Branch Out (Invasive Non-Native Species) Fund involved three different wooded areas. Area A was on what might be called the border land between the uplands and lowlands of Weardale. Area B was on the Weardale Uplands and contained a large area of woodland plantation around ten years old. Area C was a small isolated established woodland that did include some younger planting, not uncommon across the uplands.

What did we learn. First was that placing the feeders to attract and spot squirrels needed to be a certain height. What was food for squirrels was also attractive to many other creatures. Thankfully the feeders demanded a little ingenuity to lift the lids to reach the feed - though it didn't stop all.

Our project identified the height needed to enable only squirrels to access the nut feed, and not others...

Unsurprisingly Area A was where the greater number of squirrels were spotted. Sometimes as many as five at a moment were caught on camera.

There were fewer spotted at Area B, though once the feeders were found they were frequently visited.

At Area C in the entire two weeks of cameras being placed to capture any squirrel visit, there was only one spotted which never returned.

It was quite clear that to keep Red Squirrels protected in the Uplands there would need to be a concerted effort to ensure there would be a concerted effort to exclude greys from leaving the lowland areas.

The surprise of the project was that those eliminated were overwhelmingly male grey squirrels. The timing of the project, with spotting in early February and elimination into March, was designed to perhaps reduce the number of female greys which in turn would dent the renewal and expansion of the Grey population.

In discussion at the end of the project, it was considered that the mild wet winter months may have meant less time sleeping in the drey to keep warm with others, and more time out and about and an earlier breeding season resulting in fewer females being present.

Living Uplands will repeat the project in Area A in 2025 to check on whether this is the case, presuming there won't be two consecutive mild winters.

Living Uplands would like to thank all those who assisted with shaping and supporting this project: Durham Wildlife Trust, Red Squirrel Survival Trust, Red Squirrel North East, Animal and Plant Health Agency, Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Northern Red Squirrels.

Particular thanks to Northumbrian WaterBranch Out (Invasive Non-Native Species) Fund grant that made this trial project possible.