Squirrel Feeder

Squirrel-activated cameras in testing a way to feed red squirrels without the grey ones stealing all their nuts.

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Phone call

Just got thru to a professional squirrel person on the phone. Seems he isn't always out but that I had a wrong number... Some people really know their squirrel stuff! Chats with all these knowledgeable people have confirmed my suspicions that:

• I can sit in the wood in front of hazelnuts for a month but it's anyones' guess as to whether any squirrels might turn up, regardless of whether the woods teeming with the things or not.
  
• You can measure how fast nuts are eaten...
  
• ...and trap squirrel hairs on sticky tape (squirrel hairs actually look prety much the same whether from red or grey except that under a microscope you can see a groove running down the hair of a red squirrel. Usefull).
  
• There are lots of helpful 'save red squirrels' people around. Some of them already feed squirrels in their back garden.
  

I forsee an action plan is likely to be posted up very soon.

# posted by henry @ 4:55 pm

Henry Dobson

Testing a revolutionary size-selective squirrel feeder that could help red squirrels to resist the grey squirrel invasion. Research carried out as an Honours project in zoology at the University of Glasgow

All images copyright Henry Dobson excepting those taken in Gosforth Park Nature Reserve as part of an ongoing 3 year research project, copyright Veronica Carnell.

Links

• Red Alert North West
• Red Alert North East
• The Mammal Society
• ARKive
• -Red squirrel
• -Grey squirrel
• Nice Squirrel Pictures

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