One of Scotland’s best loved wild animals is on the rebound around the banks of Loch Lomond.

Increased sightings of red squirrels across the area are raising hopes that ‘reds’ are holding their own against their more dominant grey 'cousins'.

Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels (SSRS) has been monitoring squirrel populations in the parts of the country where red squirrels are most threatened by the spread of non-native greys.

Survey results released by SSRS indicate that most of Scotland’s native red squirrel populations have remained stable for another year.

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Mary-Anne Collis, from the Scottish Wildlife Trust, said: “In West Dunbartonshire and around Loch Lomond, red squirrels are on the rebound with more sightings being seen in areas such as Balloch Castle Country Park every day.

“However, there are still sightings of grey squirrels in the area and, as a result, this year we have set up one of our annual survey grids in the country park itself to see what is happening in more detail.”

SSRS – which has now suspended all outdoor volunteer work because of the coronavirus crisis – uses feeder boxes to monitor which species occur in certain areas.

Each box has a patch of sticky Velcro on the lid, so when a squirrel opens the box to get to the food, it leaves a sample of hair on the sticky pad.

These samples are then analysed under a microscope to determine which species of squirrel are in the area.

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Mary-Anne added: “The feeder box survey allows us to gather definitive proof of which squirrels are in certain areas and track this over many years.

“Often squirrels can be quite shy and will stay away from areas with lots of people, meaning we do not see them and do not know they are there.

“Our feeder survey helps us find out what’s happening in these areas.”

Dr Mel Tonkin, Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels project manager, said: “The small changes in favour of red squirrels in the south of Scotland are certainly promising, but survey results can fluctuate from year to year and we will need to gather more data in future years to determine a definite trend.

"For now, we can say that red squirrel distributions in the region are stable.

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“This is worth celebrating, and it is only possible thanks to ongoing work by volunteers, land managers and many others.

“However, we need to keep up the good work to hold onto our reds in the area and fend off the widespread grey squirrel threat.

Dr Tonkin added: “The overall trend is also looking very positive in the North East and Central Lowlands.

"Although the 2019 results [in the central Lowlands, as well as in the north-east of Scotland] showed a small change in favour of grey squirrels when compared to the previous year, overall there has been a significant shift in favour of red squirrels since the surveys began, currently occupying 75 per cent of survey sites.”

Red squirrel sightings can be reported online at scottishsquirrels.org.uk.

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