Wight Squirrel Project

30/06/2025

Here is the summer bulletin giving an update of our work.

02/06/2025

Hop on over to our website to ready our latest update and see some lovely photos of Howes Wood!

https://iowredsquirreltrust.co.uk/woodland-update-may-2025

Howes Wood, Isle of Wight progress update for May 2025

16/05/2025

At last I got to Tresco in the Isles of Scilly to see their red squirrels in Abbey Gardens, which are beautiful🙂

23/04/2025

Who says crows eat ducklings! These crows and ducklings feed together and there are still 9 ducklings after 2 weeks.

20/04/2025

Happy Easter everyone! Maybe see a few of you at Kinighton East Wood for Bluebell Day tomorrow? Details in a previous posting.....

26/02/2025

The autumn moult starts at the rump and works forwards. At these times there are always phone calls from concerned members of the public because their garden squirrels have bald patches. Some squirrels are not at all elegant when they moult, whilst in others, the change in coat is hardly noticeable.

14/02/2025

The pelage (coat) consists of layers, the closest to the skin is the insulating underfur. The main body of hair is the colour we are familiar with and this is topped with longer guard hairs. In red squirrels, the summer coat can be a different colour from the winter coat. The winter coat is moulted in the spring, beginning with the face and working backwards. The long eartufts are lost completely on most animals but some do retain a vestige of tufts.

Kittens can have very pale grey fur, so it’s obviously not age related. Colours can range from every shade of grey through to virtually black. Equally, many shades of brown and ginger are found. Occasionally, multi-coloured reds are seen. One of the oddest winter coats I observed belonged to a red squirrel (it had eartufts) with a brindled grey body and a bright ginger tail. It is quite common for a squirrel to have a light or dark tail tip or a dorsal stripe but occasionally a squirrel will have racoon-like rings in the tail or just a mixture of colours. In the summer some red squirrels may have very blonde tails.

12/02/2025

If you haven't filed in the Local Nature Reserve Strategy questionnaire yet, here is the link. There are just 2 days left....

Isle of Wight Local Nature Recovery Strategy Consultation on draft LNRS for the Isle of Wight In December 2024, Defra and Natural England approved the draft LNRS for the Isle of Wight. The next step is to hold a period of public consultation before local councillors are asked to approve the final ve...

12/02/2025

Red squirrels share some common – and uncommon – causes of mortality and morbidity with humans. Internal vital organs are aligned in a very similar way to those of humans. Their heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, kidneys, spleen and digestive tract look remarkably similar to ours. The digestive tract has a stomach that stretches when full and contracts when empty. I found that in a few animals the stomach was small and not as elastic when empty, while, going to the other extreme, the full stomach dominated the body cavity. The intestines are long, as you would expect from a predominantly herbivorous animal.

Since squirrels are very active animals, few have excess fat deposits, and those that do generally have pathology. The most common area to store fat, in the animals I’ve autopsied, has been around the kidneys. The fat is pure white and of a mucilaginous texture. Pelage The pelage, or coat, colour can vary enormously in red squirrels and is nothing to do with age or gender but genetic variation. There is more on genetics in the next chapter.

24/01/2025

Local Nature Reserve Strategy

Please comment on this strategy, it is very important! The Isle of Wight is the most important stronghold in the UK so we must look after the habitat as without it we will lose this precious population of red squirrels.
There is a lot about woodland in the document, so please scrutinise it carefully and think what will benefit red squirrels. Woodland management is beneficial and so is an age range in the trees plus a variety of tree species. Opening up the canopy too much or leaving wide open glades make the squirrels vulnerable to predation as it’s easier for buzzards to pick off the squirrels. Rides make woodland edge and it’s here the hazel produces the most nuts and older hazel produces the best nut crop for squirrels, mice and birds. This description is greatly simplified, so please do some research of your own or get back to me and ask. https://www.islandnature.org is the link to comment or I can send you pdfs which are easier to read; email address: [email protected].

Isle of Wight Local Nature Recovery Strategy Consultation on draft LNRS for the Isle of Wight In December 2024, Defra and Natural England approved the draft LNRS for the Isle of Wight. The next step is to hold a period of public consultation before local councillors are asked to approve the final ve...