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Posted on Monday 27th April 2009 by John Gurnell.
The Alpine Squirrel Population Ecology Research project celebrates 10 years. Run by Italian scientists, the project is building a fascinating long-term data set on the population dynamics and food resources of red squirrels Sciurus vulgaris living in montane and subalpine conifer forests. There are new opportunities for post-graduate biologists to join in the research programme - full details can be found on our Current and recent projects page under Articles.
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Posted on Saturday 4th April 2009 by John Gurnell.
The 5th International Colloquium on Arboreal Squirrels will be held between July 31 to August 4, 2009 at Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. The Colloquium is now officially open for registration and abstract submissions. Please see the website for further details.
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Posted on Thursday 26th March 2009 by John Gurnell.
The concept of strongholds form part of the Scottish Government’s strategy to conserve the red squirrel, Sciurus vulgaris, in Scotland. Forestry Commission Scotland is seeking views on the proposals by 26th June 2009. Note that views on controlling the invasive grey squirrel S. carolinensis are not being sought. Full details and how to respond to the consultation can be found on the FC website.
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Posted on Monday 22nd December 2008 by John Gurnell.
Students at a school in Stubbington, Hampshire in the south of England have been puzzled by sightings of a purple couloured, grey squirrel which they have named Pete. There are also several photographs giving authority the story. The reason behind the squirrels fancy coat colour seems to be related to its behaviour of going in and out of a building that stores old computer ink cartridges. Somehow some ink has become distributed over its body, probably aided and abetted by the squirrel grooming itself. See the storey on the BBC News Web Page, The Daily Telegraph, and the Metro. On such a colourful note, the SquirrelWeb team would like to wish everyone a Very Merry Xmas and a Happy 2009.
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Posted on Monday 16th June 2008 by John Gurnell.
The 5th International Colloquium on Arboreal Squirrels will be held at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, from July 31 to August 4, 2009. As per previous colloquia in the US, England and India, this meeting will serve to bring together researchers from around the world that work on all aspects of arboreal squirrels. A preliminary website is now up and running at www.tru.ca/squirrel. Please visit this site for updates, and to contact the co-chairs for additional information.
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Posted on Sunday 27th April 2008 by John Gurnell.
Recently a grey squirrel has been seen near Inverness in the Highlands, Scotland in the heart of native, red squirrel country. It is thought possible that the animal may have got there on the back of a lorry (see BBC News story http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7364769.stm). Hopefully, there is only one animal and it is not carrying squirrelpox virus, which is fatal to red squirrels. This is a further worry to the conservation of red squirrels in Scotland following the recent identification of squirrelpox virus on an Estate near Dumfrees in the south of Scotland (see BBC News story http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/7362810.stm).
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Posted on Thursday 31st January 2008 by John Gurnell.
A Prevost’s squirrel (Callosciurus prevosti) normally found in lowland and montane forests in Southeast Asia, has turned up in the garden of a resident in the City of Leeds in northern England. The attractive animal, with black back and tail, white sides, and reddish-brown underside and limbs has probably escaped from a pet shop or zoo - see article in the The Mail on Sunday at: http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=511332&in_page_id=1770.
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Posted on Friday 23rd November 2007 by John Gurnell.
The coastal pine woodlands at the National Trust Reserve at Formby hold one of the few remaining strongholds for red squirrels in northern England. However, recent news that the deadly squirrelpox virus, carried by alien grey squirrels, has entered the population is very worrying for their continuing survival. Walkers and local residents have been asked to remain vigilant for signs of sick or dead squirrels and to report back to the on-site warden. For further details, please see:
http://icseftonandwestlancs.icnetwork.co.uk/icformby/news/tm_headline=help-us-to-save-red-squirrels&method=full&objectid=20142359&siteid=60252-name_page.html
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Posted on Friday 23rd November 2007 by John Gurnell.
A red squirrel was seen by passengers on a pleasure boat on Lake Ullswater in the Lake District in northern England; the animal was at least 270 m from the shore. The squirrel hitched a lift on the boat and returned to shore unscathed. For more on this story see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/7096816.stm
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Posted on Sunday 13th May 2007 by John Gurnell.
A sick red squirrel with signs of squirrelpox virus was found near Lockerbie in south-west Scotland (20 miles from the border with England) on Tuesday 8th May. The squirrel was killed and tested at the Moredun Institute in Edinburgh, who confirmed the presence of the deadly virus believed to be carried by grey squirrels. This has important consequences for red squirrel conservation efforts in Scotland. Details can be found in a SNH press release at http://www.snh.org.uk/press/detail.asp?id=1693.
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Posted on Friday 16th March 2007 by John Gurnell.
Squirrels have bitten to death a stray dog which was barking at them in a Russian park. This is a story reported by the BBC News on the 1st December 2006 and has just come to the notice of the SquirrelWeb team. Black squirrels apparently attacked a dog in a park in the village of Lazo in eastern Russia. When people appeared, they ran off carrying lumps of flesh. One local man attributed it to a lack of pine cones last year. The full storey can be found here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4489792.stm.
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Posted on Wednesday 3rd January 2007 by John Gurnell.
This new book by Richard W. Thorington Jr. and Katie Ferrell has recently been published by John Hopkins University Press. The book contains over 100 photographs and, using a question-and-answer format, covers all aspects of the diverse squirrel family.
To find out more and how to order your own copy, go to:
JHUP .
Also see our Publications web page.
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Posted on Wednesday 3rd January 2007 by John Gurnell.
The SquirrelWeb team wish you all a very happy and prosperous 2007. Please let us know about squirrel research being undertaken, update reports on current research, useful equipment and contacts, publications and any other items of general interest. Thank you.
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Posted on Thursday 28th December 2006 by John Gurnell.
The presence of alien North American grey squirrels is of extreme concern and could have potentially devasting impacts on native Eurasian red squirrels and woodland ecosyetms in central and southern Europe - see the Aliens and Current and Recent Projects web pages. A study on a recently discovered population of grey squirrels in Ticino Park, Lombardy (N Italy) has demonstrated the risk of spread of grey squirrels throughout north-central Italy and into the southern parts of Switzerland. However, population simulations suggest that eradication of the grey squirrel is still possible if an appropriate eradication strategy is put into place immediately. To this end the authors suggest that a scheme to monitor the distribution of red and grey squirrels involving the public will help to increase public awareness of the problem in the region. They conclude that the successful containment of further grey squirrel spread will require co-operation between Italian and Swiss wildlife authorities.
See: Tattoni, C., Preatoni, D., Lurz, P., Rushton, S., Tosi, G., Bertolino, S., Martinoli, A., & Wauters, L. (2006) Modelling the expansion of a grey squirrel population: implications for squirrel control. Biological Invasions, 8, 1605-1619. Listed on Publications web page.
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Posted on Thursday 28th December 2006 by John Gurnell.
It’s easy to make the right choices in a world that is predictable. For example we plan our holidays around average weather patterns and work schedules. Similarly, animals in the wild, time reproduction to match seasonal increases in food supply. However, if the world is unpredictable, making the right choice is far more difficult. That’s why only a small percentage of investors do well in the stock market.
There are a number of ecosystems that are characterized by highly unpredictable swings in the production of resources. A good example of this is the production of seed by trees in a region. Trees display a phenomenon known as “masting” whereby all of the trees in large regions synchronize the production of seed so in a given year trees either produce massive amounts of seed or no seed at all. This is actually an evolutionary strategy by the trees to thwart the animals that eat the trees’ seed. In “bust” years the trees try to starve their seed predators so that in “boom” years there are few seed eaters around and they are swamped by all of the seed available. The seed predators cannot respond in time to the increased production because they cannot predict when it is going to occur. The net result is that more seed escapes to germinate in a mast year as compared to a strategy where the trees produce a constant amount of seed each year.
In this scenario, the seed predators are at the mercy of the trees and they are reduced to simply tracking the resources after they come available. Enter two species of seed predators, the American and Eurasian red squirrels. Our long-term studies (15-20 years) of these species (who forage on the seeds of spruce, pine, oak, and beech trees) indicate that the squirrels are beating the trees at their own game. We found that the squirrels appear to be capable of predicting when a big mast crop is about to be produced by the trees and in anticipation of this, they produce more offspring in the form of an additional litter. So… rather than having to wait for the extra seed to be produced and available for consumption, the squirrels produce more young well before the seed is ready to eat but at a time when the youngsters, once they are weaned, can take full advantage of extremely abundant seeds. The net result is that the squirrels have the maximum number of mouths available to consume the mast crop and in so doing, thwart the trees’ swamp and starve strategy.
The squirrels have had to overcome two obstacles to counter the trees’ strategy. First, they need a reliable cue to predict the upcoming seed crop. Although we do not know what this cue is as yet, we suspect it is tied to the buds which turn into the structures that harbour the future seed (cones for spruce trees, nuts for oak and beech).
The more difficult obstacle to overcome is that the squirrels need to produce the second litter of pups at a time when environmental conditions are very tough; there are no additional resources available to pump into more offspring because the trees have been producing very little seed before the mast year. In this case the squirrels appear to invest in extra offspring not when they can (after seed is available) but when it makes sense evolutionarily (before seed is available but in time for their offspring to benefit). In other words, just as with the trees, natural selection has favored a strategy in the squirrels that leads to more offspring surviving over time. In essence, the squirrels are beating the trees at their own game.
This story is analogous to a family living from paycheck to pay check and facing decisions about how much to spend on the kids’ Christmas gifts. Add to this is the dilemma that the paycheck varies a lot from one month to the next. The tendency in this situation is for the parents to invest only as much as they can spare which would be relatively little if previous months had been tough. However, if the parents could reliably predict that the upcoming paycheck was going to be a big one, they might be willing to “break the bank” to have a good Christmas and the parents can rest easy because they know that there will be money coming in soon. This is what red squirrel mothers are doing but rather than buying presents, they are making more babies.
Stan Boutin
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta
Edmonton T6G 2E9
Canada
Luc Wauters
Department Environment-Health-Safety
University of Insubria, Varese
Italy
See: Boutin, S., Wauters, L., McAdam, A., Humphries, M., Tosi, G., & Dhondt, A. (2006) Anticipatory Reproduction and Population Growth in Seed Predators. Science, 314, 1928 - 1930. Listed on the Publications web page.
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Posted on Thursday 29th June 2006 by John Gurnell.
Andrea Grill from Italy has started a new project on the phylogeography and post-glacial history of the European squirrel, Sciurus vulgaris - see the Projects Page. You may be able to help if you have tissue samples of red squirrels from known locations throughout Western, Central, Southern and Eastern Europe. If this is the case, please contact Andrea directly.
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Posted on Saturday 18th February 2006 by John Gurnell.
A conference about red squirrel conservation, organised by Scottish Natural Heritage, will be held at the Pollock Halls, Edinburgh on Monday, 27th Februiary 2006. Deputy Environment Minister Rhona Brankin will be present and will open the meeting. For further information, see http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2006/01/12090830 .
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Posted on Saturday 28th January 2006 by John Gurnell.
Details of the Scottish Squirrel Survey can be found on the Current and Recent Projects page under Articles.
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Posted on Thursday 19th January 2006 by John Gurnell.
Recently, it was pointed out to us that a list of lesser known holidays published in the Washington Post included January 21st as Squirrel Appreciation Day. Apparently, this holiday only dates back to 2001. Further information about this holiday can be found at :http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/January/squirrelappreciation.htm
Let’s all observe and celebrate Squirrel Appreciation Day by putting out some tasty food for the critters!
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Posted on Tuesday 3rd January 2006 by John Gurnell.
Unfortunately, due to a technical problem with the site, I have not been receiving emails notifying me of new comments: this is why your comment went for so long without approval. I will look into this problem as soon as possible.
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