By Jamie Sneddon.

It's impossible not to smile when you see a red squirrel, fact. This theory was really put to the test when I walked home with a very large squirrel tattoo on my leg. I’ll be honest, my girlfriend’s facial expression read more as shock and confusion than happiness. Seven years on from that questionable decision, my leg is now a whole piece, full of Scottish species, but squirrels still hold a top spot. The question is, how exactly did I go from a squirrel enthusiast to a professional squirrel tracker?

Well it all started in university when I volunteered with the Scottish Wildlife Trust on their Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels project in 2013. I didn’t know a whole lot about squirrels and honestly just needed to get experience of any fieldwork I could. Escaping windowless lecture theatres was becoming more and more essential. So, I checked squirrel feeders, lined with sticky tabs to collect hair samples, and set up camera traps. Aberdeen was, and still is, the front line for the war on grey squirrels. My job was to find out who was where. It was your bog-standard free labour situation, but I was delighted just to be in with a chance of seeing red squirrels. How naïve. Years on and I now know that working with squirrels doesn’t equate to seeing squirrels, but more on that later. Anyway, I spent my time driving around in the squirrel-mobile, an unreliable red Ford that regularly lost power on roundabouts and creeped through the woods in the hopes that I would see, even the slightest hint of, a bushy tail. I didn’t. Not once. But the camera traps had better luck than I did.

Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels was a fantastic project to be a part of and really set off my obsession. I love the challenge of seeing animals that excel at not being found. My work history generally supports this theory; if it’s too easy to see I’m not as interested. Once I left Aberdeen, it was a while before I got back into the world of red squirrel conservation. The million and one red squirrel mugs, glasses, cakes etc that I was given as gifts for any event kept me happy in the meantime.

The next step on my squirrely journey started in 2017 when I volunteered as a research assistant with the University of the Highlands and Islands. This post made my previous work look like child’s play. The project aimed to quantify the impact of forestry works, woodland thinning and tree felling, on red squirrel movements, drey (squirrel nest) use and breeding success. I was put into the middle of the woods, given a telemetry receiver and instructed to find radio collared squirrels. It can’t be that hard to find radio collared animals, right? I had already experienced radio telemetry work when flying birds of prey, so this shouldn’t be any harder, right? Wrong! Whoever first decided to strap an expensive radio tag to a small, tree dwelling, prey species was clearly insane. The usual rules of radio tracking involve seeking out open or high ground to get the clearest signal. The one thing you don’t want to do is go into thick vegetation because it causes the signal to bounce, be weakened or completely disappear. Squirrels live in the close-knit branches at the tops of trees. In thick commercial forestry plantations tracking becomes even harder. Again, the person who decided this was a good idea was clearly insane. This is where I learned that, even if I could track a squirrel to a specific tree, I wasn’t likely to see it. Despite the challenges associated with the work it was incredible experience! If you can track red squirrels, you can track anything. After 6 months and having developed a few more grey hairs, my time tracking squirrels as a volunteer came to an end. I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the break.

Tracking squirrels is an all-weather job

Jump forward to 2019. It had been a couple of years since I ran around after squirrels, learning their habits, home ranges and daily dramas. I was lucky enough to be offered a place back on the project as a paid member of staff, a big step for anyone trying to make it into the conservation sector! This meant that I was now involved with one of the trickiest parts of the project, collaring squirrels. So how do you get radio collars on squirrels in the first place? With nuts of course!

First off you find a woodland with some squirrels in it. Luckily squirrels are messy eaters so you can usually find a suitable site without too much effort. Then comes the hard part, convincing them to go into a trap. To start with, you strap a lot of traps to trees at regular intervals, cable tie them open and fill them with bait for 2-3 weeks. Then comes the moment of truth. If you want to catch squirrels you need to get up early. Traps are usually open and baited before 6/7am so that means stumbling around the woods, in the dark by the light of a headtorch. I’ve done this in a blizzard and the strobe effect adds a whole new dimension to the work! Once your traps are set all you need to do is wait for 3 hours in your car, reading material and plenty of food is essential, before checking your traps.

The early fieldworker catches the squirrel

The first trap checking round of the day is always the most exciting. At most we’ve had 20 squirrels to process so it’s not a slow start to the day. The process from here is simple – Move the squirrel from the trap into a hessian sack and then into a handling cone. Easier said than done. Also, if you’re wondering, yes squirrels bite. I’ve not been bitten yet but from what my colleagues tell me, it’s not all that fun. The handling cone doesn’t look very nice, but it means things can move quickly and the stress is reduced for everyone. Squirrels are far hardier than they look, and some come back up to 10 times so it can’t be too bad.

A juvenile squirrel in the handling cone

Once a squirrel is in the handling cone, we collect some key information. Sex, weight, age and then give them a tail mark and ear tag for identification. This double approach means that if their tail gets damaged, the hair grows back quickly or the ear tag is lost, we have a secondary way to identify individuals. Next up they’re given their very own radio collar, not an easy thing to apply, before being released. Usually we get a mouthful of insults and some bark thrown at us before the squirrel goes off in a huff.

The wonderful world of squirrel tails. The good, the bad and the bushy.

After collaring it’s all about tracking, it’s what now takes up most of my time. This means working in all weather, at all times of the day while being led through thick forest, 6-foot-high gorse bushes and every other difficult woodland obstacle you can imagine. You develop favourite squirrels and an irrational hate for specific individuals that ‘intentionally’ make your life difficult. Favourites are usually females, that don’t move very much, and dispersing juvenile males that disappear one day and turn up 4 miles away, tend to be the least likeable. Every squirrel is unique, they all have a story and you become pretty attached to your study group. Predation and accidents on the road happen but, despite being small animals in a big world, squirrels are hardy survivors at heart. It’s what makes them so endearing.

So, that’s my story. From squirrel enthusiast to squirrel tracker in 7 years. It’s not an easy job and it’s not for everyone but it’s a privilege to be able to follow the lives of these animals so intimately. We live in a time defined by an extreme disconnect from the natural world around us. My work enables me to work in some beautiful locations and gives me the opportunity to make a difference. As conservationists, making a difference is the cornerstone of why we do what we do. Riches, comfort and stability are all set aside for a feeling of satisfaction, knowing you’re part of the solution rather than the problem. Sometimes that means having to check yourself for ticks and pull thorns out of your legs at the end of a long day but that’s just fine by me.