Welcome
Welcome to the new Red Squirrels in South Scotland (RSSS) website, the home of red squirrel conservation in southern Scotland.
Scotland is home to over 75% of Britain’s endangered red squirrels with the country representing one of the last strongholds for the species in the UK.
Our aim at RSSS is to maintain south Scotland as a stronghold of our native red squirrel and to protect the rest of Scotland’s red squirrels from the deadly Squirrelpox virus.
Incursion by pox carrying grey squirrels from England is now the single largest threat to red squirrels in Scotland. The Squirrelpox virus is harmless to greys but is lethal to the native reds, with squirrels dying a horrible death over two weeks. The Squirrelpox virus also has the devastating effect of speeding up the rate at which grey squirrels displace and replace reds (usually about 15 years) by a factor of twenty, denying researchers adequate time to develop an effective vaccine for reds or a contraceptive for greys, along with targeted ways of administering them. The current lethal grey squirrel control effort is essential in order to ensure that red squirrels survive long enough to benefit from future non-lethal methods of control.
‘The 132 years since the introduction of the American grey squirrel has seen the rapid demise of our native red. Scotland in now home to over 75% of the entire UK red squirrel population. We are their best and last chance’.
