Question reference: S6W-19612
- Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 30 June 2023
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Current status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 13 July 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-18127 by Mairi Gougeon on 6 June 2023, how many red squirrel kits it estimates have been killed through the destruction of occupied dreys during the breeding season as a result of commercial forestry operations, in each year since derogated licensing provisions were granted by NatureScot to Forestry and Land Scotland.
Answer
Expert ecological opinion and anecdotal evidence from management operations by FLS estimate the number of kits killed will be significantly smaller than the theoretical maximum presented. This hypothetical maximum estimate assumes worst case scenario is all assumptions. In all years the proportion is always less than 3% of the estimated population of kits in known red squirrel habitat.
Reporting Year 1 | Hypothetical Maximum no. of kits estimated that could theoretically have been killed |
2017-18 | 420 |
2018-19 | 417 |
2020-21 | 327 |
2021-2 2 | 522 |
2022 | 290 |
1 licences initially ran from Sept to Sept from 2017 annually, then changed for reporting purposes to run by calendar years from 2021.
2 A higher than normal proportion of red squirrel habitat was worked during 2021 to support the timber industry during the post-pandemic recovery period.