Red squirrels reintroduced to Shieldaig

Our Red Squirrel Reintroduction Project aims to reintroduce red squirrels to 10 sites in the northwest Scottish Highlands, creating new populations that are free from grey squirrels and the threat of squirrel pox. We’re very pleased to announce that we have now carried out the first of these – to Shieldaig, in Wester Ross.

The woodlands at Shieldaig comprise the most westerly of the ancient Caledonian pinewood remnants. Along with the woodland that extends up the road to Applecross, this provides around 185 hectares of excellent red squirrel habitat that will increase to around 500 hectares over the coming years as additional tree planting matures.

The location of Shieldaig and the ancient Caledonian pinewoods that are providing a new home for red squirrels.

33 squirrels were captured from donor sites around Forres, Inverness and Strathspey in late February and early March. We only took a maximum of two squirrels from any one site, to ensure that there is no negative impact on the local population. They were taken to the Strathspey Veterinary Centre where they were given a full health inspection including weight, measurements, testing for disease and inserting a microchip.

They were then carefully placed into specially built nest boxes for the journey, lined with hay for warmth and provisioned with peanuts for energy and apple for hydration. Once in Shieldaig the nest boxes were secured to trees and the exit holes stuffed with grass and moss to allow the squirrels to find their way out in their own time. The following morning we checked all the boxes to make sure that the squirrels had got out ok and were pleased to catch sight of a few scampering along the branches and exploring their new surroundings!

The squirrels have settled into their new habitat really well. We are providing supplementary food for the first couple of months and the squirrels very quickly found all the feeders and are now using these regularly. We are also very pleased to note that there is lots of evidence of natural feeding, with stripped cones found at various points throughout the woodlands. Local residents are also regularly reporting sightings of the squirrels; they’ve even made it into the village on their explorations! We will monitor the population closely over the coming months and years; we expect to see them breed and expand throughout the excellent habitat that the Shieldaig woodlands provide.