{"id":330917,"date":"2025-12-06T06:18:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T06:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/330917\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T06:18:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T06:18:12","slug":"how-citizen-scientists-helped-red-squirrels-return-to-aberdeen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/330917\/","title":{"rendered":"How ‘citizen scientists’ helped red squirrels return to Aberdeen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ken BanksNorth east Scotland reporter, Aberdeen<\/p>\n

\"NatashaNatasha Lichtarowicz<\/p>\n

A red squirrel in the north east of Scotland, photographed by Natasha Lichtarowicz<\/p>\n

Back in 2009, red squirrels were thin on the ground in Aberdeen – instead grey squirrels were a common sight in the city’s trees and parks. <\/p>\n

Today the red squirrel population is thriving thanks to the efforts of a group of volunteers and their “citizen science”. <\/p>\n

It is thought the invasive, non-native greys<\/a> have been almost eradicated locally – and there is now evidence of red squirrel activity yards from the city’s main thoroughfare.<\/p>\n

The turnaround is seen as a huge achievement for Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels (SSRS) – a partnership project led by Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) – which has been working to save the species for the past 16 years.<\/p>\n

Its north east community co-ordination and outreach officer is former primary school teacher Naomi Bentley, who has dreamed of working in conservation since childhood. <\/p>\n

She said there were currently more than 30 volunteers collecting data in the Aberdeen area, ranging from children to the retired. <\/p>\n

Thanks to their work, she said they were getting close to “full eradication” of the non-native species from the city, while the reds are “thriving”.<\/p>\n

“I think we are down to the last couple of greys,” she added. <\/p>\n

\"Maps<\/p>\n

Data indicates Aberdeen’s red population has strengthened compared to greys<\/p>\n

“It’s down to the volunteers that we have so much coverage,” Naomi said.<\/p>\n

“It’s people’s love of nature – citizen science.”<\/p>\n

Originally from North America, the larger grey squirrel out-competes red squirrels for food and habitat. <\/p>\n

Some carry – but are not affected by – a pox, which is lethal to red squirrels.<\/p>\n

Grey squirrels not only replace reds they can also cause damage to woodlands by stripping bark.<\/p>\n

\"Naomi<\/p>\n

Naomi Bentley from Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels said they are thriving<\/p>\n

As the reds were lost from Aberdeen, concerns had grown they could be wiped out.<\/p>\n

After the project began in 2009, it took about two years for the first confirmed recording of a red in the city, indicating just how few were still about.<\/p>\n

Live-trapping and humane lethal control carried out by trained SSRS staff has reduced the number of greys, allowing the native reds to continue to recover.<\/p>\n

It is thought that without the project the red population in Aberdeen could have disappeared, and greys would have expanded in the north east.<\/p>\n

\"PAPA Media<\/p>\n

Grey squirrels, native to North America, carry a pox which is deadly to red squirrels<\/p>\n

One of the methods used to survey populations is to set up feeder boxes with sticky tape or pads used to collect hair samples from animals entering the box.<\/p>\n

Data seen by BBC Scotland News shows that that were no confirmed grey squirrel samples feeder boxes – placed in areas such as woodland trees – in Aberdeen in the quarter of the year between 1 July and 30 September.<\/p>\n

There have also been none so far in the latest quarter, and just a handful of sightings.<\/p>\n

In contrast, there were 1,540 confirmed red squirrel samples in the July to September window, and more than 900 so far since October.<\/p>\n

Mapping of data between 2021 and 2024 also shows a strengthening of the red population, with greys almost disappearing.<\/p>\n

A box off Aberdeen’s main city centre throughfare of Union Street recently had red squirrel hairs on it for the first time.<\/p>\n

\"Joel<\/p>\n

Joel Sangster is among those helping survey efforts in Aberdeen<\/p>\n

Joel Sangster, 23, has been volunteering on and off for two years.<\/p>\n

He studied conservation, and saw it as a “great opportunity”.<\/p>\n

Joel said: “I fell in love with it, it’s fantastic.<\/p>\n

“Folk stop and talk to you and when you tell them what you’re doing they are over the moon.”<\/p>\n

Another volunteer, Seshadri, goes out with his daughters Vani, 15, and eight-year-old Avni, to survey seven boxes in the local area.<\/p>\n

\"Schoolgirl<\/p>\n

Vani, right, and her younger sister Avni are among the keen volunteers<\/p>\n

He said it was not glamorous work, dealing with slugs, snails, “random insects”, wood lice, and giving the feeder boxes a good scrub but it is worth the effort.<\/p>\n

“It’s about being in touch with nature, and restoring nature as it once was,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We see a lot more red squirrels now.”<\/p>\n

\"RussellRussell Craig<\/p>\n

This squirrel was photographed by volunteer Russell Craig in Aberdeenshire<\/p>\n

He added: “There are a lot of jokes and laughs and camaraderie.”<\/p>\n

Vani explained: “I wanted to do volunteering for my bronze Duke of Edinburgh award, saw Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels, and have carried on.”<\/p>\n

And young Avni – who her dad described as “my little helper” – said she got involved as “I was just curious”.<\/p>\n

The team in Aberdeen now hopes that, thanks to their efforts, the red squirrels are back for good.<\/p>\n

\"ColinColin Little<\/p>\n

A young squirrel photographed in Moray<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ken BanksNorth east Scotland reporter, Aberdeen Natasha Lichtarowicz A red squirrel in the north east of Scotland, photographed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-330917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}