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Showing posts from April, 2012

Seeing Red!

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Ask anyone to conjure up an image of Scottish wildlife and the chances are that the first thing they will think of is that great monarch of the glens - the Red Deer. Undoubtedly the Red Deer has inspired poets and artists across the generations. Standing stately on heather clad hills with antlers probing through the all too familiar Scots mist it has become the embodiment of the spirit of a nation. In reality it is well established with a healthy population spread across the country. At the opposite end of the scale in terms of size is another of Scotland's great wildlife icons.  It also has the red 'Celtic' hair but its future is far less secure. I am talking of the Red Squirrel. Red Squirrel (Scirius vulgaris) The Red Squirrel has been part of Scotland's natural landscape, and indeed the landscape of much of Europe and Asia for centuries. Hence it is more correctly known as the Eurasian Red Squirrel or, to give it its latin title, Sciurus vulgaris. Yet i