This week we are sending half a dozen red squirrels over to the Scilly Isle of Tresco for what is a start in a very exciting project for us!
We were contacted by Tresco earlier this year with the idea of trying to establish a new population of red squirrels on their island. What with our squirrels breeding so well, and with a few surplus males at the end of this season, we decided to help out.
The plan is for the island to house these six squirrels in a pen over the winter to get some experience in looking after and observing these animals, then into next year we will look at supplying them with some females to pair up with the males to hopefully have them breed later in 2013 into 2014.
These kittens that are bred will then be released into the wild of the island, supplemented with extra squirrels from us, to try and establish this new population.
Hopefully this new project will work, and I will keep you informed of progress over the coming months and years.
Great news - hope they get as much enjoyment from them as we do. Hope they travel OK.
ReplyDeleteHi there. Good luck with your Red squirrel release. I hope things go well with your Red's over the winter. I live in Toronto, Canada, and earlier this year, my wife, Jean, and I were in Ireland/Northern Ireland where we came upon the rarely seen Red Squirrel. To us, they actually look somewhat like our Canadian Red squirrels, but boy, do they have long ears! We were shocked to learn that your Red squirrels are contracting the pox virus from Grey squirrels, and dying. We have far to many Grey squirrels over here at our Canadian feeders. We feel very lucky to have seen two Red squirrels in Ireland. We have posted some of our pictures and video for anyone interested at: http://frametoframe.ca/photo-essay-red-grey-squirrels-canada-ireland
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