For my research project, I am studying the effect of habitat quality (presence or absence of fruit/nut trees) on squirrel population. I chose this topic because during my visit I noticed large number of squirrels in certain area while some areas had comparatively low/no squirrels at all. This made me think and conclude that the major cause of this could be the presence/ absence of fruit/nut trees. Therefore, this led me to my current hypothesis that “habitat quality effects squirrel population”.
In Module 2, I chose 3 locations and labelled them 1,2 and 3 but I didn’t elaborate on how I chose those locations so I will describe it here. I considered location 1 to be 100m from the walking path and location 2 and 3 were approximately 200m from location 1 to the north and south. For my data collection, I used point count stations to determine the number of squirrels in the location. I set up 3 sample stations(S1-S3) where for each station, I randomly chose a start point and observed at approximately 50m radius for the number of squirrels. The sample stations were separated by 200m. I used the GPS field measure app to record the distance. I observed the stations for 10 minutes everyday for 5 days. Instead of following the order of moving from S1-S2-S3, I decided to go for random station order for 5 days to prevent bias results.
I did come across some difficulties as movement of pedestrians through that pathway scared the squirrels away and caused a decrease in number. I quietly continued observing them further without any noise and found that the population would be restored at that location after some time. I plan to collect data using the same technique for my research.
Also, I will be making few changes and my response variable will be continuous (number of squirrels) whereas my predictor variable will be categorical (presence/absence of nut-bearing trees).
You have a good start for sure and your methods seem appropriate. I would consider if you want more than 3 locations, will this be enough for you to determine the influence of fruit/nut trees do you think based on your initial data collection. You could consider having more stations and not repeating the point counts at each stations as many times. You know your study site best at this point.
Okay, this sounds really cool! I love the way you set up your experience, and changed the observation pattern to prevent bias. The influence of pedestrians are also something that I am struggling with (although mine are drive bys). Have you tried changing the time that you go at, or putting up a sign that says “science experiment in progress” ? I believe that is what I am going to do the next time I repeat this, just to try and keep the environment as natural as possible.
Overall great job! This sounds great!