Nature park welcomes baby red squirrels

A nature park has welcomed the arrival of four baby red squirrels.

The "kits" were born at the Yorkshire Arboretum on the Castle Howard estate, which has had a captive breeding colony of red squirrels since 2023.

There are fewer than 40,000 red squirrels left in England, and the wild population has struggled since the introduction of non-native grey squirrels from North America in the late 1800s.

Ben Paterson, the red squirrel oifficer at Yorkshire Arboretum, said: "As soon as people realised that there was the possibility of kits, there was a large buzz around the whole place. It was all people were talking about. It's been a really exciting atmosphere, it makes all the hard work worth it."

Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.