The red squirrel genetics project is making good progress. We have hair tubes out at three locations in Bute, with at least three more sites planned for later in the summer. Each hair tube is baited with nuts and a small sticky patch; a few hairs stick to the patch as the squirrel reaches in for its reward. It is a neat way to obtain hair samples because there is no trapping, so it’s stress-free for the squirrel.

The trouble with field work with red squirrels is that they don’t always show up when you want them to. At one site we have had lots of samples from week one (of eight weekly checks). At another we have slogged up the hill and through the woods for no hair samples at all. Yet. 

 Also, the red squirrels can learn that there’s more than one way to get a free lunch. In this video you’ll see that it has learned to knock the hair tube about until the nuts fall out. From the squirrel’s perspective, putting your head in a plastic tube with your bottom sticking out is a risky thing to do. Better to work out how to shake the nuts out.

The purpose of all this effort is to obtain DNA samples from the hair follicle cells on the ends of the strands of hair. From that we can see how closely related the squirrels are and how much they are able to mix between woodlands. We hope the results will shed light on what’s holding back our red squirrel population and therefore what we have to do to help them thrive.

All the technical work will be done by Rebecca Synnott, from the South-East Technological University (SETU) in Ireland. She will be extracting the DNA, analysing the results and coming up with practical recommendations for the conservation of Bute’s red squirrels. We are very lucky to have all this work done for us and the results could be very interesting indeed.