Scotland's native red squirrels are one of our most threatened mammal species. Once the UK’s most common squirrel now there are only around 140,000 left in the UK - with more than 75 per cent of them estimated to be in Scotland.
There's one outstanding reason for that: the introduction in the late 19th century of the grey squirrel from North America. Perhaps no one could have known back then how far the grey critters would spread.
But nowadays, for anyone like me living in Glasgow or in the Central Belt, these creatures are the only ones we know, running around our parks and green spaces. There are some 2.7million greys in the UK, including at least 200,000 in Scotland.
