Campaigners call on Government to help save native red squirrel

Britain’s endangered red squirrels have weaker protection for their breeding sites than beavers, campaigners have warned, as housing, holiday development and felling put pressure on some of their last remaining habitat.

A new briefing paper backed by two leading red squirrel scientists calls on ministers to close a legal gap which was shut for bats and newts almost 20 years ago.

Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, a person accused of killing a red squirrel or destroying its drey in England or Wales can rely on a defence if they show that the act was the incidental result of a lawful operation and could not reasonably have been avoided.

The equivalent defence under the Habitats Regulations was removed for European protected species, including bats, dormice, otters and great crested newts, in 2007, but red squirrels are not on that list.

Save Our Reds CIC, a campaign and Community Interest Company, founded in August 2025 by journalist and conservationist Marie Carter-Robb to prevent the extinction of Britain’s native red squirrels, has published its first briefing paper to mark Red Squirrel Awareness Week, which runs until October 11.

It calls on ministers to add red squirrels to Schedule 2 of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017.

Listing would bring red squirrel breeding sites and resting places under the stricter Habitats Regulations regime, which makes their damage or destruction an offence without requiring proof of intent.

In England, work that would otherwise breach those protections would require a licence from Natural England.

The paper, which was developed with Dr Craig Shuttleworth and Dr Peter Lurz, follows Natural England’s Red Squirrel Recovery Strategy, published in April, which warned that under current management red squirrels face a high probability of extinction across mainland England within about 25 years.

Ms Carter-Robb said: “Today it is easier to destroy a red squirrel’s home than a bat’s. Beavers, driven to extinction here around 400 years ago and since returned, now have stronger protection for their breeding sites than a native animal that has lived in Britain for ten thousand years.

"That cannot be right. This is not a silver bullet. Red squirrels face disease, grey squirrels and habitat loss.

"But stronger legal protection is a practical step the government can take.”