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Red Squirrel

Sciurus vulgaris

Not yet photographed by the community

Native squirrel now restricted to Scotland, IoM and a few refuges.

Species Profile

Red List (UK); Endangered in Great Britain due to habitat loss and grey squirrel competition.

Lifespan: 3–4 years in the wild; up to 10 years in captivity
Size & Weight: 20–25 cm body length, 15–20 cm tail; 250–500 g
Habitat: Coniferous and mixed woodlands with abundant seed-bearing trees, particularly spruce, pine, and larch plantations.
UK Distribution: Now restricted to scattered populations in Scotland, northern England, Wales, and a few isolated populations in southern England; resident year-round but range severely fragmented.
Diet: Seeds from pine cones and other conifers, hazelnuts, acorns, berries, fungi, tree bark, and shoots; caches food for winter.
Predators: Pine martens, foxes, stoats, weasels, raptors (especially goshawks and buzzards), and domestic cats.
Mating Season: December to February
Breeding: Litter size 3–4 kits; gestation period approximately 35–38 days; one litter per year; kits weaned at 8–10 weeks.
Behaviour: Highly agile arboreal forager, spending most of its life in trees. Solitary and territorial, with distinctive ear tufts becoming more prominent in winter. Creates large winter food caches (middens) in tree crevices.

Did You Know?

•Red squirrels have been almost entirely replaced by introduced grey squirrels in England, Wales, and southern Scotland over the past 150 years.
•They can rotate their hind feet 180 degrees, enabling them to descend tree trunks head-first.
•A single red squirrel may create hundreds of food caches annually, many of which are never recovered and inadvertently aid tree regeneration.
•The distinctive ear tufts are longer in winter and thought to aid hearing by funnelling sound.
•Grey squirrels carry a poxvirus lethal to red squirrels but are immune themselves, making coexistence nearly impossible.

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