Ginger ninja! The springing squirrel: Photographer captures animal jumping 12ft into the air and leaping from tree to tree



Simon Phillpotts captured the tiny red squirrel leaping from trees

The series of shots are part of a project to track the creatures, which were until recently under threat from extinction

They can leap up to 12-feet in the air, high above the woodland floor

The pictures chart the growing population in the North Yorkshire Dales



Down in the forest, something stirs.

The tops of the pine trees sway a little in the chill, still air and from the ground, you can just hear the faint sound of rustling.

Then - as if from nowhere - he takes to the air. Not just with a little jump or a measured step from branch to branch, but an arcing, fully-fledged, death-defying leap into thin air.

The Ginger ninja leaps from a log, as photographer Simon Phillpotts is on hand to capture the giant jump Flying through the air, tiny red squirrel reaches heights of up to 12-feet, launching itself through the treetops



Springing high above the woodland floor, the little fella jumps through the trees high in the Yorkshire Dales

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it is an incredible flying red squirrel

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No. It’s the Ginger Ninja of the North Yorkshire Dales - a red squirrel who’s simply nuts about jumping.

His antics were captured by photographer Simon Phillpotts as part of a project to celebrate the area’s red squirrel population, slowly re-establishing itself after decades of absence under threat of extinction.

Even among fellow red squirrels, this particular one appears to be a champion.



The photographs capture him leaping up to 12ft from a standing start on the ground, and flying through the air with the greatest of ease as he jumps from tree to tree in the forests around Wensleydale.

Given that he’s only 18 inches long at full stretch, it’s quite a feat.



Were a human able to replicate it inch for inch, it would be the equivalent of jumping 40ft or hurdling a Transit van.



Photographer Simon Philpotts said: They have little fear but their secret is their hooked claws, which they can deploy to give as much grip as they need'

Mr Phillpotts captured the stunning series of images of the leaping red squirrel as part of a project to celebrate the area's red squirrel population

The population of red squirrels in the North Yorkshire Dales is slowly re-establishing itself after decades of absence under threat of extinction

Not to mention landing perfectly on the other side before taking off again.

‘Red squirrels are extremely agile,’ Mr Phillpotts said. ‘Most of my pictures are taken a few feet off the ground but they regularly jump around the tree canopy 70ft up in the air.



'They have little fear but their secret is their hooked claws, which they can deploy to give as much grip as they need.’



And the Ginger Ninja’s Olympic performance? ‘Different individuals have different characters and abilities,’ he said - other squirrels he filmed were less willing to jump so spectacularly.

Eurasian Red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) are native to the British Isles but were almost wiped out in large parts of the country after grey squirrels were introduced in 1876 from North America.



The greys carry a deadly squirrel pox virus but are immune to it; red squirrels are not.



Hence, there are currently an estimated three million greys in the UK compared to fewer than 135,000 reds, 75 per cent of which are in Scotland.

In North Yorkshire, a conservation partnership has been working to build up the still-fragile population and numbers are visibly increasing.

So could ginger Ninjas eventually take over the world? To be fair, that’s probably a jump too far. But Mr Dale and conservationists are hopeful they will be a more common sight in the future.

England's last red squirrels might be hemmed in by their grey cousins, but they are still leaping free in their own woodlands