Habitat

Where do squirrels live?

Squirrels are a woodland animal. In the absence of greys, the red squirrel thrives in most broadleaved and coniferous woodland.

However, where the two squirrels exist, the red squirrel in general only survives in conifer woods as it is more specialised to feed off smaller seeds. There are a number of locations in Scotland where red and grey squirrels have been known to exist for many years, this is probably due to the habitat mix of conifer and braodleaves. It appears that the reds stick to the conifer and the greys are in the broadleaf. Rather than living together, it just seems that the squirrels are living in different woodlands which are close to each other. It is not thought that true co-existence of reds and greys can happen.

To aid the red squirrel in the long term it is important that habitat management is practiced to allow red squirrels to survive in areas that would otherwise be taken over by greys. This is easier said than done and much research is still needed before we can fully assist the red squirrel within our conifer woodlands.