Red squirrels persist in Scottish Highlands strongholds but face ongoing pressure from grey squirrel range expansion and squirrelpox virus. Conservation efforts to protect them have direct welfare implications.
Red squirrels that contract squirrelpox suffer an invariably fatal disease causing facial lesions, loss of sight and progressive debilitation over weeks. The suffering involved is significant, and the disease advances through populations as grey squirrels expand their range. Control of grey squirrels in buffer zones creates an ethical tension between the welfare of individual grey squirrels and the conservation of the red squirrel population. Red squirrels living in fragmented habitat patches also face increased stress from dispersal across hostile landscapes and reduced genetic diversity in isolated populations.