Five places to enjoy epic Scottish wildlife-spotting adventures<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n SSRS\u00a0project partners,\u00a0a network of volunteers\u00a0and\u00a0individual landowners\u00a0are doing their bit to\u00a0defend the Highland Line, preventing any incursions of grey\u00a0squirrels to the\u00a0north\u00a0and expanding\u00a0red squirrel territory to the south.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Grey squirrels\u00a0outcompete\u00a0red squirrels for food and\u00a0habitat, and\u00a0can\u00a0replace\u00a0an\u00a0entire population of red squirrels\u00a0within 15 years,\u00a0unless the\u00a0grey\u00a0population is reduced. Some grey squirrels also carry the\u00a0squirrelpox\u00a0virus, which\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0affect them but is deadly\u00a0to reds\u00a0if transmitted.\u00a0Fortunately, there has never\u00a0been a case\u00a0of\u00a0squirrelpox\u00a0recorded along the\u00a0Highland\u00a0Line, and there has only\u00a0been\u00a0one positive case\u00a0north of the\u00a0Central Belt.\n<\/p>\n
\n According to SSRS, the hard work and passion are paying off. Red squirrels are returning to areas where they\u00a0had\u00a0previously been completely replaced by grey squirrels. They are are also being reported in higher numbers in some areas, while fewer grey\u00a0squirrels are being seen in areas where conservation\u00a0work\u00a0has been\u00a0carried out.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Jen Payne,\u00a0SSRS\u00a0Conservation Lead for the Highland Line, said: \u201cIt is really encouraging to see red squirrel populations recover and persist\u00a0along the Highland Line.\u00a0We know how important this area is for preventing the spread of grey squirrels further north, so our work to defend the line and hopefully\u00a0expand red squirrel territory further south is vital to protect the red squirrels of the Highlands and the\u00a0North East.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “We\u2019re\u00a0grateful to have so many passionate volunteers, partners\u00a0and landowners helping us to look after this iconic species. No matter how often you see red squirrels,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0always a joy to watch them in the wild,\u00a0so seeing them flourish in new areas, or return to people\u2019s gardens after long absences is heartwarming.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Highland Line\u00a0control zone\u00a0is a priority area for SSRS, following the Highland Boundary Fault, a geological feature which\u00a0acts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-640690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115741891199497424","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}