Are these Yorkshire's rarest woodland creatures? Red squirrels bring joy - and hope for their future

But the introduction of the grey squirrel in the 1870s saw the beginning of the red species’ decline in the UK with numbers decimated from 3.5m to just 15,000 in England.

That is because the grey squirrel carries a disease - squirrel pox - harmless to itself, but invariably fatal to the red squirrel.

But over recent decades, projects have sprung up across the region and nation to bolster numbers of red squirrels - and, where possible, reintroduce them to the wild.

One such project is a breeding enclosure at the Yorkshire Arboretum near Castle Howard, which opened last year.

And this week visitors to the Arboretum can enjoy a series of activities to mark Red Squirrel Awareness Week, including a range of webinars and a colouring competition for younger visitors.

Ben Paterson, arborist and red squirrel officer, explained: “We started this programme working with the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums, who make recommendations on diversity and play matchmaker, basically.

“Last year in our set up we bred 12 red squirrel kits, which were absolutely adorable. Six of those have been reintroduced into the wild in Clocaenog Forest in North Wales.

“Red squirrels are very curious and inquisitive. They will interact but on their terms, they can approach you but you can’t approach them!

“At this time of year, they’ve just started their hoarding.”

Mr Paterson estimates that the squirrels in the enclosure have hoarded an estimated 75kg of nuts in their cache ready for the winter.

And he’s justly proud of the enclosure, which he built himself alongside a team of volunteers funded by the King Charles III Charitable Fund.

With a 3m “no leap zone” perimeter of steel panels, substantial rigour has gone into making sure the red squirrels can’t get out - and grey squirrels can’t get in.

"There’s no denying that grey squirrels are cute and fluffy, and that their antics on bird feeders in the garden are entertaining. But they cause a lot of damage, and if you have grey squirrels, you can’t have red squirrels really,” Mr Paterson said.

"This idea first came eight or nine years ago when trying to teach people about tree health and the damage grey squirrels cause – and we thought ‘well, why don’t we have a look at some red squirrels?’”

For now the enclosure is something of a matriarchy, with two adult female squirrels Hazel and Holly along with one of last year’s kits, Ginger. The other kits who weren’t released into the wild have gone to other breeding colonies and projects across the UK.

Following this year’s successful breeding programme, Mr Paterson and his team are hoping to introduce a new male into the squirrel enclosure in the coming months.

To find out more about the Arboretum’s Friends of the Red Squirrel Team, visit www.yorkshirearboretum.org.