RED squirrel supporters are monitoring whether warning signs are having an effect on the number of road deaths.
Specially produced ‘slow down’ signs have gone up in gardens next to black-spot roads in an attempt to cut the toll from traffic, which remains the single biggest cause of deaths.
In a year, Wight Squirrel Project founder Helen Butler conducted 41 post mortems — 22 were road deaths, seven caused by predators and three from rat poison.
Leprosy, which remains endemic in the Island population, has been shown to have little effect on numbers.
Helen said: “A big thank you is due to all those people who took the trouble to pick up the remains and freeze them so I could ascertain the causes of deaths.”
A survey of squirrel numbers was contributed to by 76 households, which showed, despite deaths, the Island population to be largely stable.
The road sign project is jointly funded by the Wight Squirrel Trust and the IW Red Squirrel Project, which concentrates on education.