Researchers are asking people to take part in a project to help measure the spread of black squirrels. It it thought be about 100 years since the rodents were released in the UK, however, the spread of the black squirrel has been hard to trace. They are essentially the same species as the common grey variety but it not known whether they carry the grey squirrel pox which is known to infect the UK’s native red squirrels. It is thought the entire population of the black squirrels originate in Bedfordshire where a few individuals were released. So far they have only been spotted in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire. If you have spotted one you can submit your sighting here http://blacksquirrelproject.org/