Bedlington and District Red Squirrel Group's efforts lead to big increase of red squirrels to Choppington Wood

The volunteer group, founded in March 2022, began working in Choppington Wood just over a year ago, and has since helped revive the area’s red squirrel population.

Paul Brannan, a group coordinator, said: “When we first went into Choppington all the local residents and dog walkers were saying to us that there are no red squirrels here anymore, it is just completely overrun with greys.

“We have taken about 140 greys out of there in the last year plus and the result of that was, in January, we suddenly started seeing the reds come back and they have just continued to grow since then.

“So it is really good news.”

The group monitors squirrel populations with movement-triggered cameras and stations that pick up fur from passing squirrels, the colour of which indicates the frequency with which each species passes through the area.

The group traps and culls grey squirrels, a species introduced to the UK in the nineteenth century, when their population starts to threaten reds.

Red squirrels are native to Britain, but can be easily outcompeted for food and habitat by grey squirrels, which also breed more quickly and carry a disease harmless to them but deadly for red squirrels.

Paul said: “Cumberland and Northumberland, and the groups that are working there, are really the last line of defence before the greys get up into Scotland.

“That is why we are doing what we are doing.”

Paul moved near to Gallagher Park in Bedlington around three years ago when red squirrels were abundant in the area.

He decided to take action to protect them after a disease outbreak decimated the population, reducing the park’s red squirrel numbers to single figures.

The group was formed and took over the area from a Morpeth-based red squirrel group that was struggling to manage a very large patch.

Paul said: “With their help and the help of the Cramlington group on our other border we set up this patch.

“Initially it was to protect the reds that we had left in Gallagher Park but we pretty quickly realised that to do that we had to actually work in all the woodlands in the area.”