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EmailIphone Application    Posted: 19th March 2021
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New research underway to track urban squirrels in Aberdeen
The research teams will be using VHF radio and GPS tracking to monitor the urban squirrels.

Results will inform red squirrel conservation programmes.

New, ground-breaking research by the University of the Highlands and Islands, in collaboration with the Scottish Wildlife Trust, aims to better understand how grey squirrels live and move in urban areas.

Currently, very little is known about the habitat preferences, movement corridors and home range size of grey squirrels. Researchers are aiming to gather information by monitoring the movements of ten grey squirrels in Aberdeen between late March and July.

The research is funded by Forestry and Land Scotland and will be carried out under a special licence from NatureScot. The teams will be using VHF (Very High Frequency) radio and GPS (Global Positioning System) tracking to monitor the squirrels.

Since 2007, a targeted grey squirrel control programme has been in place in the Aberdeenshire countryside, in order to help preserve red squirrel populations which struggle to compete with their grey counterparts.

The results of this new study will provide further support to red squirrel conservation in the region.

Research Fellow at Inverness College UHI, Dr Louise de Raad, said: “This exciting research will make use of the latest GPS tracking equipment that has become small enough to be fitted to grey squirrels.

“This will allow us to gain a much better understanding of grey squirrel ecology in a semi-urban environment and investigate what their preferred habitats are, how large their home ranges are, how far they travel in a day and whether they make use of movement corridors.

“This will inform best practices for grey squirrel population control and make a significant contribution to red squirrel conservation”.

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Rabbit Awareness Week set to return this summer

News Story 1
 Rabbit Awareness Week (RAW) is returning this summer, running from 24-28 June 2024. The theme for this year will be 'Healthy Diet, Happy Bunnies'.

The focus on rabbits' diet comes after the most recent PDSA Animal Wellbeing (PAW) Report report revealed that 42 per cent of veterinary professionals identified inappropriate diet as one of the five most important rabbit welfare issues that need to be address.

The campaign will include veterinary blogs, videos, and digital waiting room resources. Practices can sign up to receive updates about RAW. 

Click here for more...
News Shorts
CVS Group hit by cyber attack

CVS Group, which owns more than 450 veterinary practices in the UK, has been hit by a cyber attack.

In a statement, the group said the incident involved unauthorised external access to a limited number of its IT systems. As soon as the attack was discovered, the group took its IT systems temporarily offline, causing 'considerable operational disruption'.

It has warned that the security steps taken and ongoing plans to move its operational systems and IT infrastructure to the Cloud are likely to have an ongoing impact over a number of weeks.

Due to the risk that personal information was accessed, CVS has informed the Information Commissioner's Office. The company is working with third party consultants to investigate the incident.