THE PROPOSAL FOR MONITORING OF RED SQUIRREL SCIURUS VULGARIS IN POLAND

Red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) is an arboreal rodent which occurs naturally in Europe and Asia. The population trend of this species is marked as declining in many countries. In Poland red squirrel has been under partial protection since 2014 but there is low level of knowledge concerning local population size and trends, as there is no regular monitoring throughout the country. The purpose of this paper is to propose a monitoring method for red squirrel in Poland, which can help facilitate the acquisition of knowledge on the biology, population size and trends, state of the habitat, and the impact of this species on the environment in Poland. The method described in this paper consists of two types of indicators: state of the population (based on population density per 1 ha and co-occurrence of potentially conflict and invasive species of squirrels – grey squirrel, black squirrel and Pallas’s squirrel) and state of the habitat (based on 4 individual components: wooded area, age of the stand, canopy closure, biomass of Norway spruce cones). Assessment of the indicators allows to determine whether the state of the habitat and/or population is favorable inadequate or bad for the monitored species. Regularly carried out monitoring can be a great help in understanding the dynamics of the red squirrel population in Poland and allow for an early response to threats to the species.