Natural Resources Wales has published a news item about the red squirrel project in Clocaenog Forest.
"Red squirrel populations in a North Wales forest stronghold are being given a boost by Natural Resources Wales (NRW).
In 1998 there were up to 400 squirrels in Clocaenog forest near Ruthin. But now that figure is thought to be less than 50 and as part of a project to secure their future, seven squirrels have been released in the area."
Read the full article, with photos and videos on the NRW website. read the full story
Dr Emma Sheehy, Professor Xavier Lambin and colleagues have just published some fabulous and quite ground breaking research that reveals that pine martens can help in the conservation of red squirrels.
It builds upon earlier field work from Ireland which was widely reported in 2014. However, unlike the Irish work, the latest research from Scotland used DNA forensics and computer analyses in addition to field observation to work out how changing presence of martens affect grey squirrels and crucially - also red squirrels that were present in the woodlands.
The results show that pine mar... read the full story
If you go for a walk in Clocaenog Forest, Ruthin, you are sadly, unlikely to see one of the red squirrels
that reside there. The population is at an all-time low and it’s only through dedicated volunteers
checking trail cameras that we know whereabouts in the forest the reds persist.
There are now 35 trail cameras positioned within the 5,500hectare forest which are distributed in
four ‘blocks’. We have four trained volunteers who organise and lead groups of other volunteers to
check the cameras every 6 weeks.
There’s a bit of a routine that has transpired over the months which ... read the full story