Perth & Kinross has some of Scotland's most dramatic scenery extending from the flat agricultural plains in the south to the hills above Dunkeld, attracting the visitor onwards to the more dramatic wilderness of the Cairngorm National Park. We are proud to be known as "Big Tree Country" for the large forests and woodlands that cover the area. It is among those trees that a large proportion of the UK's red squirrel population remains.
However, these red havens are increasingly under threat from migrating grey squirrels coming from southern Tayside (especially Perth). Grey squirrels are an invasive, non-native species (from North America). Over time they essentially outcompete/starve the reds out and have caused catastrophic declines in red populations in England and Wales. Some of them also carry a virus to which they are immune but which is fatal to reds. This virus has now crossed the border into Scotland. |
