The abstracts of the 6th International Colloquium of Arboreal Squirrels held in Kyoto City, Japan, on 4-8 February of 2012 are now available at the home web page of the Japan Network of Sciurid Researchers.
Red Squirrels Northern England (RSNE) is a red squirrel conservation partnership in the north of England, principally in Cumbria, Northumberland, Merseyside, Lancashire, north-west Durham and the Yorkshire Dales. Visit their web site if you want to join a red squirrel group, send in a sighting or find out where to see red squirrels in these regions.
A new website has been launched about squirrels in France – Les écureuils en France. It not only covers information about the native red squirrel but also alien invaders such as the red-bellied squirrel and the Siberian chipmunk. The site also makes the point that the alien North American grey squirrel introduced into Italy is not that far from the Italian-French border and could one day move into France!
A recent paper published by Pečnerová & Martínková in Zoologica Scripta (see Publications page) using phylogenetic reconstruction shows that tree squirrels evolved in the Northern Hemisphere with the first group to diverge from a common ancestor being Tamiasciurus followed by Sciurus in the Palaearctic and Reithrosciurus in Indo-Malayasia. Thereafter overland colonisation resulted in the present-day distribution of tree squirrels.
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The 4th Announcement of the 6th International Colloquium on Arboreal Squirrels has been posted on the colloquium website will full details of abstract submission, registration, accommodation, access and travel information and excursions. A poster is also available.
Following extensive trials of camera trap locations, settings and protocols at Edinburgh Botanical gardens in 2009, a two year research project is now under way in Cumbria to test the use of camera traps for red squirrel monitoring. The Queen Mary, London University led research project by John Gurnell, Corrie Bruemmer and Peter Lurz investigates if camera traps employed along a transect can successfully be used to estimate local squirrel densities and to assess the effectiveness of grey squirrel control measures. The work compares data from visual transects, trapping and camera traps and initial results (first year’s data) are highly encouraging.
The 6th International Colloquium on Arboreal Squirrels will be held in Kyoto City, Japan, from 4th to 8th February, 2012. The colloquium is held every 3 years; previous veues have been U.S.A (1994), U.S.A. (2000), England (2003), India (2006), and Canada (2009). These meetings cover any aspect of the biology of tree and flying squirrels from all over the world, including their ecology, behaviour, physiology, phylogeny, evolutionary biology, conservation and management. Participants can register through the website; questions about the colloquium can be mailed to .
The recent launch of the of the European funded ES-SQUARE project in Italy to protect the native red squirrel from the invading grey squirrel could not have come sooner (see news item dated July 25th 2011). A paper published in 2010 in Hystrix, The Italian Journal of Mammalogy about the situation in Italy clearly shows that the grey squirrel continues to increase its range in the the north of the country. The authors emphasise the need for the immediate ban of the pet trade in squirrels and the implementation of eradication or control actions.
Level 3, which provides telecommunications services, has reported that grey squirrels cause 17 percent of the damage to their fiber optic network. This is a reduction on last year’s 28% damage resulting from the fitting of cable guards. The reasons why they cause so much damage to cables is unclear.