{"id":939309,"date":"2026-05-05T12:37:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T12:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/939309\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T12:37:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T12:37:28","slug":"big-step-as-first-red-squirrel-kit-spotted-in-co-down-forest-three-years-on-from-initial-reintroduction-attempt-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/939309\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Big step\u2019 as first red squirrel kit spotted in Co Down forest three years on from initial reintroduction attempt \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first sighting of a red squirrel kit<\/a> in a Co Down forest<\/a> has been hailed as a \u201cbig step in the road\u201d towards a permanent population in the area after a re-introduction project began three years ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The native red squirrel was first reintroduced to the woodland at Castle Ward in January 2023<\/a> as part of a project between the voluntary Heart of Down Red Squirrel Group (HODRSG), the National Trust, Ulster Wildlife and Belfast Zoo.<\/p>\n

However, while the animals successfully set up home in the forest, they did not produce any young.<\/p>\n

Read more: <\/b>Red squirrels introduced at Co Down National Trust property<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\"MLA<\/a>\"New<\/a><\/p>\n

Reintroduction work has continued in the years since, with two males and two females of breeding age released in the forest in 2025. <\/p>\n

\"AA lactating female was spotted at a feeder on April 9 PICTURE: HEART OF DOWN RED SQUIRREL GROUP <\/p>\n

Hopes of success were tentatively raised last month after what appeared to be a pregnant female red squirrel was spotted at a feeding point.<\/p>\n

Now, it has been confirmed to have been successful after a young kit was captured on camera on April 29 and again on May 1. <\/p>\n

Stephen Martin from HODRSG said that it was \u201cfantastic\u201d to see the young animal. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a previous introduction, which was unsuccessful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe squirrels were there for the guts of three years, but there was no young. <\/p>\n

\"HeartHeart of Down Red Squirrel Group was set up to reintroduce and conserve the red squirrel population around Ballynahinch and throughout Co Down PICTURE: HEART OF DOWN RED SQUIRREL GROUP <\/p>\n

\u201c[This time] there was two breeding pairs, so we were very hopeful. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big event, it\u2019s a big step in the road \u2013 but young squirrels, they have to survive predator pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among those threats include the native pine martin, as well as the risk of a grey squirrel venturing into the woodland. <\/p>\n

Mr Martin said that the forest was identified as a reintroduction spot as it was not home to any of the invasive grey species<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a meeting a few years ago with the ranger in Castle Ward; there\u2019s about 250 acres of woodland there, it\u2019s got great potential,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"AProjects are being carried out across the north to protect the native red squirrel population PICTURE: MAL MCCANN <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom chatting to him, we realised that there hadn\u2019t been a grey squirrel in Castle Ward for maybe, well, now 25 years and counting, which is an amazing thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust to be sure, we stuck up feeders around Castle Ward with associated cameras for a number of weeks and we realised, this is looking very good.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that one of the reasons they believe greys have not established themselves in the forest is because of the number of pine martins. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just keeping them out because a grey squirrel is catastrophic for a wee red squirrel population like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin added that the aim was now to get a population of reds \u201cup and running\u201d and thanked his fellow volunteers, including Ruth Maxwell and group founder Wilson Johnston, as well as the National Trust for their help.<\/p>\n

\u201cCastle Ward\u2019s a fantastic habitat for them, and they should be there,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey are our native red squirrel, that\u2019s what they should be, so it would be a fantastic thing to be able to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the sighting of the kit was \u201ctoo well developed\u201d to have been the offspring of the pregnant female squirrel seen in early April. <\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully there\u2019s the chance we might have another successful litter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first sighting of a red squirrel kit in a Co Down forest has been hailed as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3847],"tags":[262456,88580,193031,70,16,15,1717],"class_list":["post-939309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-castle-ward","tag-co-down","tag-red-squirrel","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116522008652505442","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939309","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=939309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}