But being a species champion is something that I've taken very seriously and, for me at least, it really has awakened a genuine interest in the plight of Welsh wildlife. Globally, the conservation status of the Eurasian red squirrel is 'least concern' but, of course, this is not the case here in Wales, because the red squirrel is thriving elsewhere across Europe—in fact, as far west as Spain, and all the way across to Siberia in the east—but here in Wales the red squirrel has been under threat for over a century. 

As the only native squirrel species in Wales, the red squirrel is an iconic symbol of Welsh wildlife and our natural heritage. For over 10,000 years, red squirrels have populated the vast majority of the British isles. As recently as 1945, the red squirrel was the primary and dominant squirrel species in Britain, including here in Wales, yet today that squirrel population has been decimated, and there are two primary reasons for this alarming decline: habitat loss and the arrival of the grey squirrel into Britain in the 1800s. There are records of releases, most of which were from private or pet collections, dating as far back as 1828, when one single squirrel was apparently released near Llantysilio Hall in Denbighshire. There is also a record of five squirrels from Woburn being released in Wrexham in 1903, and a number from London Zoo being released in Aberdare in 1922. And from these small beginnings, red squirrels rapidly lost ground to their larger, more aggressive American cousins, as they simply could not compete for habitat or food. And on top of this, the grey squirrels brought disease—squirrel pox. This relatively harmless disease to greys, which had built up immunity over tens of thousands of years, proved to be devastating and deadly to our native reds, which have no natural immunity to the virus, and it has killed many.

It's no wonder, then, that the colonisation of Wales by the grey squirrel was largely complete by the 1980s. Incredibly, populations of red squirrel in Britain have fallen from an estimated high of 3.5 million to a current estimated population of just 120,000. As we approached the end of the millennium, the only squirrels that remained in Wales were confined to just three places. Fewer than 50 survived on Anglesey, a few hundred remained in Denbighshire and a few hundred had beaten the odds in mid Wales, too. By the late 1990s, these population centres were deemed to be at significant risk, and the future for the red squirrel was undeniably bleak.

But it's not all doom and gloom. In 1998, the fightback began. The initial conservation efforts were started in Anglesey. They were led by Menter Môn with EU funding and later landfill tax grants. And Ynys Môn may very well be the most encouraging success story for any conservationist looking the turn the tide of species decline. When those conservation efforts on Anglesey began, just around 40 squirrels were left on the island, but due to the leadership of Craig Shuttleworth and the Red Squirrels Trust Wales, these efforts have paid dividends. Together, today, there are around 800 of our red squirrel friends on that island alone, and the population is so large that a number of red squirrels have even escaped Anglesey, crossing the Menai straits, to form a small population in the Bangor area. By 2013, all grey squirrels were removed from the island, and by 2015 it was declared to be a grey-squirrel-free zone. However, as with any conservation effort, there have been some setbacks. In the last five years, seven grey squirrels have been caught on the island, and had those squirrels not been caught by the dedicated conservationists, their efforts to protect our furry friends would have been undone. 

I'm proud to be able to say that my own constituency is also home to one of the three refuges for red squirrels in Wales. In the late 1990s, the Clocaenog forest in Denbighshire appeared to be the home of what was the largest population of red squirrels in the country. But by 2011, it became quite clear that the numbers had declined significantly as a result of a growing population of grey squirrels in the area. It was clear that the red squirrels in the Clocaenog forest were under threat and that something had to be done.