Red squirrels are turning up in ‘very unusual’ places as the public is being called upon to take part in a nationwide Great Scottish Squirrel Survey in a bid to help save the species.

Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels (SSRS) is hoping people will get outside and explore nature and report any squirrel sightings that they may make.

Around 120,000 red squirrels remain in Scotland – which makes up approximately 75% of the total UK population – although the SSRS team are at pains to make clear that is a ‘ballpark figure’ and they are unsure of the exact number.

The number of red squirrels in Scotland has dropped over recent decades due to their replacement by introduced grey squirrels, which outcompete them for food and habitat and spread the deadly squirrelpox virus.

The red squirrel is Scotland’s only native squirrel species and they were once widespread throughout the country. This year has seen them – and the grey species – appear in unusual places and the first death in Fife of a red squirrel due to squirrelpox also took place.

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Now the SSRS want the public to give their views and make a contribution towards conservation of the animal.

SSRS is a partnership project led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and is working with local communities, landowners, partner organisations and volunteers to protect red squirrels in key priority areas where they are most under threat from greys.

Programme Manager Nicole Still said: “Red and grey squirrels have turned up in some very unusual places in 2024 - from reds in urban areas such as Bishopbriggs, the first in Glasgow in many decades - to greys further north than we would normally expect. Alongside this we had our first confirmed death in the Central Lowlands of a red squirrel from squirrelpox earlier in the year.

“As such it's more important than ever that we gather as many public squirrel sightings as possible. Reporting a sighting is a simple thing anyone can do to help – by being our eyes on the ground the public can make an invaluable contribution towards critical Scottish nature conservation efforts.

“Last year over 1300 people reported almost 2000 squirrel sightings in just one week. Let’s make this year’s survey even greater!”

Members of the public can report squirrels they spot anywhere in the country whether that is in back gardens, local parks, woodlands or busy urban areas to the SSRS via the Scottish Squirrels website.

These sightings then directly inform conservation action on the ground by helping staff, volunteers and partners understand how the distribution of each species is changing over time, where efforts should be priorities and alerting the project to situations where grey squirrels are posing an immediate threat.

So far this year, there have been 9,022 reported sightings of squirrels with 5,940 of them being red and 3,082 greys.

That number is down has mostly dropped over the last four years with 2020 seeing more than 16,000 red squirrels spotted, before it dropped to less than 10,000 a year later and then just over 6,000 in 2022. The number did rise to more than 10,000 again in 2023.  

During the same period, reported grey squirrel sightings have remained relatively steady with between 3,000 and 6,000 each year.  

Now from September 30 to October 6, the Great Scottish Squirrel Survey week will take place with a programme of events across the country.

That data will then be released in December of this year.