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  • BBC Countryfile Magazine

    SAVING SQUIRRELS

    Dec 16, 2021 5 minutes
    By Richard Baynes

    The sharp frost is slowly loosening its grip, but there is still ice on the bracken. From a chilly seat in a hide in the woods above Aberfoyle, right on the Highland boundary, I see the flicker of a bushy brown tail.

    Then a pert face, jaws rapidly chomping, pops up above a log in the clearing. The red squirrel looks directly towards me, then quickly twists away. Its rich chestnut fur undulates as the flexible body races across the ground and up a pine tree.

    I never tire of seeing squirrels here in Stirlingshire, especially in winter when they are a warm breath of life, but I am lucky to have them on my doorstep. There are just 160,000 red squirrels now in the UK. South of the Scottish border, reds are now relegated to a few pockets as

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