Radiant redheads are only found in certain areas of the UK, which is why The Wildlife Trusts are encouraging everyone to help protect them - by getting out and about and reporting sightings during Red Squirrel Week (Saturday 4 to Sunday 12 October 2008).

With distinctive russet fur, tufted ears and twitching tail, a red squirrel is a captivating sight. Yet they’re becoming more infrequent. That’s why local Wildlife Trusts will be holding family walks and events and encouraging everyone to look for signs or sights in woodlands, along roadsides and in gardens too. To find an event near you, visit www.wildlifetrusts.org.

With a total UK population of only 160,000, red squirrels continue to be in serious danger. Red squirrel projects throughout the UK rely on sightings reported by the general public to keep track of the population, in decline due to a number of factors including disease, the loss and fragmentation of woodland habitat and competition from the more robust grey squirrel.

Conservation projects are making progress. There are now some 2,500 to 3,500 red squirrels on the Isle of Wight and habitat work is making corridors for the reds to get from woodland to woodland. A Red Alert North England project, the largest single species conservation project in the UK, is focusing a budget of £1.15million, half of which comes from the Heritage Lottery Fund, on the ‘Save our Squirrels’ project in the region. And red squirrel numbers are thought to have doubled on Anglesey in the last five years.

Where to send red squirrel sightings:

• Red or grey squirrels in the North of England (Northumberland, Cumbria, North Yorkshire, Lancashire and Merseyside) to Northumberland Wildlife Trust at www.saveoursquirrels.org.uk

• Red squirrels in Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders to the Red Squirrels In South Scotland project online at: http://www.red-squirrels.org.uk/report_sightings.php or call Richard Wales on 01750 23446.

• Red squirrels in the Scottish highlands at www.highlandredsquirrel.co.uk

• Red squirrels in north east Scotland at www.grampiansquirrelgroup.co.uk

• Red squirrels in Perthshire, Angus and Dundee at www.redsquirrel.project@dundeecity.gov.uk and elsewhere in Scotland at www.scottishsquirrelsurvey.co.uk

• Red squirrels in Northern Ireland should be reported to the Centre for Environmental Data and Recording http://www.habitas.org.uk/cedar/

• Red or grey squirrels in Anglesey or from across Wales via www.redsquirrels.info/sightings.html or watch them on live-feed webcam at http://www.redsquirrels.info/squirrelcam.html

• Red squirrels in mid-Wales to the mid Wales Red Squirrel Partnership on http://www.wwbic.org.uk/redsquirrelproject

• Red squirrels on the Isle of Wight to the Wight Squirrel project at http://www.wightsquirrels.co.uk