1.
My species of interest is the American Red Squirrel.
2.
Location 1: Next to path. Approximately one person would walk by every 5 minutes. River on other side of path. Puddle within trees from winter snow melt. Area of study ~500m2
Location 2: Surrounded by tree cover. Small pond created from snow melt. ~250m from location 1. People barely visible through tree cover. Squirrels took no notice of them. Area of study ~500m2
Location 3: Next to path. ~200m from location 2. Approximately one person would walk by every 5 minutes. River nearby. Area of study ~500m2
Having observed squirrels at all 3 locations, I noticed they appeared more active and alert at the sites where people were nearby (location 1 and 3). They would climb trees or make defensive sounds at people as they passed. Additionally, I noted they would only partake in grooming (they groom themselves like cats!) or eating when they were sufficiently covered by the forest, which could suggest the squirrels living in the area still see humans as potential threats.
3.
For my project I decided to focus on location 1 and 2 only; location one being directly adjacent to foot traffic and therefore human activity, and location 2 being ~25m from the path with sufficient tree cover.
I originally planned to state a hypothesis about my theory that squirrels residing in the urban forest along the Seine River have not become significantly unnaturally accustomed to human activity. However, my evidence for this is based on my specific observations of when American Red Squirrels choose to engage in behaviours that takes away from their awareness of their environments. So, I decided to simplify it significantly.
Hypothesis: American Red Squirrels will not eat, forage, or groom themselves when people are present.
I expect based on observation already made that the time spent grooming and eating/foraging will be significantly higher at the more secluded location 2.
4.
Response variable: Time spent grooming or eating. Continuous
Explanatory variable: Location/human activity. Categorical
hello
thanks for the field sketches!
a few thoughts – if the response variable is presence/absence of certain behaviours (or if lumped together, one big behaviour) this seems categorical
seems like red squirrels do a lot of chattering around humans (their warning call) and freeze
human activity may be presence / absence also
just a thought
Hello,
My original thought was to record time spent grooming/eating/etc., (how much time spent during ~20minutes of observation per squirrel) not just the presence or absence of behaviour. I’d appreciate your thoughts on whether this seems like a good idea given my hypothesis? Perhaps I should stick to the presence or absence of the behaviour, or perhaps change the wording of my hypothesis?
Also yes, human activity will be either present or absent.