The leading bird charity has been recruited to the fight to save Scotland's red squirrel population, as signs grow of a fragile recovery of this threatened species which is native to Britain.
RSPB Scotland has joined has joined forces with five other charitable, government and landowning bodies in a bid to secure the future of the iconic woodland mammal, through the pioneering Saving Scotland's Red Squirrels (SSRS) project launched in 2009.
The red squirrel is the UK's only native squirrel and numbers have declined rapidly since the introduction of grey squirrels from North America in the 19th Century.
Since 1952, 95% of red squirrels in England and Wales have been wiped out, and today 75% of the UK's remaining population is found in Scotland, around 120,000. However, greys still threaten the existence of the native reds because they compete for food and habitat, and transmit the deadly squirrelpox virus.
The SSRS project aims to continue to prevent the spread northwards of grey squirrels and squirrelpox via a programme of grey squirrel control in a zone running coast to coast along the Highland Boundary Fault. It is also mapping priority areas for red squirrel conservation in south Scotland, and co-ordinating the control of grey squirrels.
Over 2013 the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT), one of the project partners, analysed records collected by staff, landowners and volunteers.
This data revealed that the collapse in Scottish red squirrel numbers had been halted and there were numerous examples of red squirrels returning to areas from which they had been absent for many years.
But there was a welcome for new arrival to the campaign from SSRS Project Manager Mel Tonkin: "Saving Scotland's Red Squirrels has already been successful in beginning to reverse the downward trend for red squirrels in Scotland, but our work will need to continue for many years to really secure the future of the species. We are therefore delighted with this new partnership with RSPB Scotland."
Dr Aileen McLeod, Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, said: "The numbers of red squirrels in Scotland are increasing and are now returning to their former habitats. This has been most notably in the Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Ayrshire, and the north-east of Scotland where people are once again seeing red squirrels visiting the bird feeders in their gardens."
She said it was due to the important work being carried out by stakeholders such as the SWT, landowners, Forestry Commission Scotland and volunteers who had been undertaking targeted control of grey squirrels.
She was delighted that RSPB Scotland were now involved bringing a wealth of knowledge to the project.
Stuart Housden, Director of RSPB Scotland, said: "We are in the privileged position of owning and managing more than 80 nature reserves across Scotland, and we already posses a huge responsibility for delivering on the conservation of our native red squirrels."
He said RSPB had been impressed by the work of the SSRS project, as it represented the best chance of preventing the extinction of this species on the British mainland.
"We are really pleased not only to be joining forces with the member organisations to help contribute to this important work, but also to commit hard-won charitable funds to this excellent project. We are looking forward to a very productive and constructive partnership," he said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article