Dumfries and Galloway residents urged to report squirrel sightings

A red squirrel in woodland
-Credit: (Image: Pearse O’Halloran)


People across Dumfries and Galloway are being urged to report squirrel sightings.

Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels is running its Great Scottish Squirrel Survey and wants people to record where they have seen red or grey squirrels.

Programme manager Nicole Still said: “Red and grey squirrels have turned up in some very unusual places in 2024 – from reds in urban areas such as Bishopbriggs, the first in Glasgow in many decades - to greys further north than we would normally expect. Alongside this we had our first confirmed death in the Central Lowlands of a red squirrel from squirrelpox earlier in the year.

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“As such its more important than ever that we gather as many public squirrel sightings as possible. Reporting a sighting is a simple thing anyone can do to help – by being our eyes on the ground the public can make an invaluable contribution towards critical Scottish nature conservation efforts.

“Last year more than 1,300 people reported almost 2000 squirrel sightings in just one week. Let’s make this year’s survey even greater.”

The survey begins on Monday and runs until October 6. Sightings can be reported via scottishsquirrels.org.uk/squirrel-sightings to help inform conservation action by showing how distribution of both reds and greys is changing and where efforts should be prioritised.