SquirrelWeb

To keep up to date with European news about red squirrels, sign up for the newsletter .

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 6^th 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.

Recently, a project with European funding started in Italy with the principal aim of eliminating or managing the risks posed by the introduction of the alien grey squirrel from North America, and with particular respect to conserving the native red squirrel. Full details of the project can be found on the dedicated EC-SQUARE web site.

The orgnaisers have announced the dates and location for the 6th International Colloquium on Arboreal Squirrels to be held in Kyoto, Japan in 2012. Presentations will take place from the morning of 4th February (Saturday) to noon on 8th February (Wednsday) (see Colloquium website).　All oral and poster presentations will be made at the conference hall at the “Monbou Kaikan” in Kyoto City, which will also provide hotel facilities for participants. Typically participants will arrive at “Kansai International Airport” on 3rd February and stay at the “Monbou Kaikan” from 3rd February to the morning of 8th February. A call for papers and details of registration and access to Kyoto City will be released in the third announcement, probably in August 2011.

Claire Stevenson, PhD student, Centre for Wildlife Conservation, University of Cumbria, Newton Rigg, Penrith, Cumbria CA11 0AH. Email: Claire.Stevenson”at”Cumbria.ac.uk .  The Grey Squirrel was introduced to Britain in the 19th Century and is now widespread and continuing to increase its range. Understanding temporal and spatial dispersal patterns and, how different land cover types affect species movement and ecological networks is particularly important when conserving a species which is sensitive to habitat fragmentation and when controlling invasive species. This study is using the least cost tool from the Biological and Environmental Evaluation Tools for Landscape Ecology (BEETLE), designed by Forest Research, to model the functional connectivity of grey squirrel habitat within Cumbria, UK, and assess dispersal routes and directions within the county. With all modelling techniques, validation, which is where comparisons are drawn between the model outputs and independent observations, is important to show the reliability of the model. This study is therefore using a combination of genetic mitochondrial DNA sequencing and GPS telemetry to validate the model outputs. These techniques will also provide detailed information that can inform policy makers and wildlife managers on what constitutes barriers or conduits for grey squirrels in the landscape and give information on grey squirrel dispersal ecology. The project is funded by the University of Cumbria and the Forestry Commission GB.

Elena Oban and colleagues have detected a poxvirus in a red squirrel road casualty from north-east Spain. The squirrel had many haematomas in its body, and skin lesions on its ear tips, tail and feet, but not on the eyelids or mouth as found with Squirrel poxvirus (SQPV) infection in red squirrels in the UK. Preliminary analysis suggest it is an orthopoxirus, but morphologically distinct from SQPV. Grey squirrels, carriers of SQPV, have never been recorded in Spain. The case is reported in Veterinary Record (see Publications page).