Squirrel Appreciation Day

National Squirrel Appreciation at is a day to learn about and celebrate the world’s cutest rodents. Here’s the thing about squirrels, some people hate them, but can those people leap across a space ten times the length of their body? … We love them.

It is estimated that Scotland supports three quarters of the 160,000 red squirrels thought to be living in Britain today, with South Scotland accounting for a quarter of the Scottish population. South Scotland remains one of the few remaining strongholds of the red squirrel in Britain, and the Red Squirrels in South Scotland project has been established to maintain this status.

What do they look like?

Squirrel

Squirrels are rodents and are unique in being the only ones in the UK that climb trees and are only active during the day. The red squirrel is the lighter of the two squirrel species found in Scotland, being about half the weight of the grey squirrel.

Top 10 facts about the Red Squirrel

The red squirrel’s body is about 20cm long ending in another 18cm bushy tail
Its coat is usually a rich chestnut red although thicker winter is coat is paler brown with a greyish tinge
Red squirrels rarely co-exist with grey squirrels
The red squirrel is an expert tree-dweller, being able to run up and down tree trunks, dash along branches and even leap short distances from tree to tree.
They can live in almost any kind of woodland but are becoming more and more restricted to large conifer plantations and native pinewoods in Scotland, rather than deciduous woods which are ideal habitat for the grey squirrel.
Their very sharp incisor teeth are used for gnawing into pinecones and hazelnuts for their seeds.
They also eat wide range of other foods is including berries, shoots, fungi and the occasional insect.
The young are born mainly in early spring and mid-summer in well insulated nests or ‘dreys’ made of twigs and leaves, normally in the fork of a tree.
On average there are three young born in each litter.
Red squirrels may live for five years.