Catch'Um binoculars logoCatch’Um

Expedition 🇬🇧 United Kingdom

Grey Squirrel in United Kingdom

The parkland acrobat — a bushy-tailed forager that buries thousands of nuts each autumn and forgets half of them.

Grey Squirrel

The species

The grey squirrel is the bold, agile mammal of temperate parks and woodlands — equally at home spiralling up an oak trunk or raiding a bird feeder in a suburban garden. Native to North America but now widespread in the UK and parts of Europe, it has become one of the most familiar wild mammals people encounter on an ordinary walk.

Habitat in United Kingdom

Grey squirrels thrive in deciduous and mixed woodland, parkland, and leafy suburbs wherever oak, beech, and hazel provide mast. They nest in tree cavities or dreys — compact balls of twigs and leaves high in the canopy — and patrol the ground in autumn when acorns and nuts fall.

Where to spot one

  • Richmond Park

    London

    Ancient parkland where red deer graze at dawn, mallards paddle the ponds, and foxes slip through bracken at the woodland edge.

  • The New Forest

    Hampshire

    Open heath and oak woodland where foxes, deer, ponies, and woodland birds share a landscape that feels surprisingly wild for southern England.

  • Hyde Park & Regent's Park

    London

    Urban park lakes for mallards, tree lines full of sparrows, and pigeons along the Serpentine — starter discoveries in the heart of the city.

  • Cotswolds Farmland

    Gloucestershire & Oxfordshire

    Hedgerows, pasture, and village edges — classic fox country where russet coats show clearly against green fields at last light.

Conservation status

LC — Least Concern

Grey squirrels are Least Concern globally and abundant across much of their range. In the UK and parts of Europe they are considered an invasive competitor to the native red squirrel, prompting local control programmes in red squirrel strongholds.

Keep exploring

Keep exploring

Free on iOS

Log the Grey Squirrel in United Kingdom

Spot one in the wild — scan it in Catch'Um to log your common discovery.