Formerly widespread but declined over the last 50-60 years and is now extinct. The last records relate to individuals seen in the Upper Derwent Valley during the early-mid 1990s. One was seen being brought to a nest by a goshawk in 1994. The recent decline in the Sheffield area and parts of the Peak District was detailed by Whiteley (1997).

A red squirrel that turned up in the generally treeless environment of South Head Farm on the SW side of Kinder in July 1998, where it spent a couple of days before being killed by a dog, had escaped from the Chestnut Centre, which lies 3.5km away over a 450m moorland ridge.

Species identification information