Latest update October 26th, 2026 10:20 AM
Interesting creature: Red Squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris)
(Kaieteur News) – Native red squirrels are a lot rarer in the UK than their American cousins, grey squirrels. Usually found in coniferous woodland, they like to feast on hazelnuts by cracking the shell in half. If you’re lucky you may also find pine cones that have been nibbled, leaving what looks like an apple core behind! Red squirrels make a rough nest called a ‘drey’ out of twigs, leaves and strips of bark high up in the tree canopy. Males can be seen chasing females through the trees, leaping across branches and spiralling up tree trunks.
Native red squirrels are a lot rarer in the UK than their American cousins, grey squirrels.
HOW TO IDENTIFY
The red squirrel has a reddish-brown coat and pale underside. It has a characteristically bushy tail. It is distinguished from the grey squirrel by its smaller size, red fur and distinctive, large ear tufts.
DISTRIBUTION
Found in Scotland, the Lake District and Northumberland; isolated, remnant populations further south in England and Wales, including Formby, Anglesey, Brownsea Island in Dorset, and the Isle of Wight.
Red Squirrels are usually found in coniferous woodland, they like to feast on hazelnuts by cracking the shell in half.
DID YOU KNOW?
Red squirrels do not hibernate, but they do keep stores of food to see them through difficult times when fresh food is not available. In their favoured habitats of mixed broadleaf and coniferous woodland, they have a source of food all year-round as pine seeds are present over the winter months.
POPULATION DECLINE
In England a petition set up by Save Our Reds, has attracted more than 75,000 signatures, urging more action noting the decline in the population of Red Squirrels. Founder of the campaign Marie Carter-Robb, said: “We have a series of urgent actions that need to be brought together into one joined-up national plan.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), said the government was protecting endangered red squirrels by tackling the threat of non-native grey squirrels.
Combining data from a number of wildlife organisations, the group said the endangered species, which “still clings on” across Cumbria, Northumberland and the North Pennines, could disappear within 25 years.
It also said only 120,000 to 160,000 remained, with as few as 15,000 in England.
According to Natural England causes for the decline include the introduction of grey squirrels from the USA and Canada from 1876 spreading the squirrelpox virus, which is fatal to the red squirrels only.
The group said habitat loss and weak enforcement of existing protections were adding to the problem.
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