VIDEO: Cameras capture cute squirrels enjoying Sherwood Forest

Earlier this month, the county council released its first video in partnership with wildlife photographer Barbara Meyer which showed roe deer in their natural habitat in the forest.

This latest video shows footage of some of the grey squirrels which have been filmed in their natural surroundings at different times of the day and night.

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Paul Cook, Nottinghamshire County Council’s assistant site manager at Sherwood Forest, said: “We hope to capture a range of different wildlife and seasonal changes so aim to run this project for around 15 months in the first instance.

“Some of the footage we have already captured is remarkable, especially being able to get so close to deer, for example.”

The cameras are set up within natural habitats for a couple of weeks at a time, away from public areas, and the batteries and memory card capacity allow the team to leave the camera running without checks over a short period such as this. The cameras only film when there is movement in shot, so would be activated in instances such as when a deer is grazing.

Wildlife cameras have been carefully located within a number of natural habitats with the purpose of generating footage which can benefit education and conservation work at Sherwood Forest Country Park. The cameras are sited away from public footpaths and public areas and will help the rangers’ team to understand more about wildlife and its movements within the forest.

It is hoped the project will confirm current understanding of what wildlife species live in Sherwood Forest, learn about the wildlife’s behaviour and their movements, i.e. how far different animals roam, their dietary requirements and sleep patterns, their roles within the forest’s ecosystem and help us with the management of the forest, as well as providing photographic and video material for educational purposes at the country park on British wildlife.

In addition, Barbara has started to also take photos of birds at the feeding stations around the nature reserve. This should provide information about the different bird species and their distribution throughout the forest area.

Barbara will produce reports about sightings and behaviour on a monthly basis. These reports will include details about which bird and wildlife species have been captured or just seen at the different feeding station.