My original design did not change from start to finish, however my perception of the role of red squirrels in their environments did. My first observation was of squirrels at two locations, one was chirping, watching people walk by, and very clearly alert. The other was relaxed, grooming itself and foraging without concern. The difference between the two sites was the presence of human activity, the alert squirrels were next to a footpath, the relaxed squirrel was covered by trees and the path was barely visible from its place in the tree. I began to consider the effect of human disturbance on the red squirrel and the possible implications of this.
Going into this experiment, my perception of squirrels was that they thrived wherever they lived, as they were abundant within cities. After looking at research on them however, I discovered the North American red squirrel was very understudied, and the exact population is mostly unknown. The red squirrel is a common site in both cities and natural habitats, however, and I was curious whether the squirrels habituated to the suburban forest along the Winnipeg Seine River were affected by human disturbance in the same way that I have seen grey squirrels and deer behave differently to human presence.
Overall, I was happy with how my project turned out, though if I were to repeat the experiment I would take more replicates and study more locations with varying degrees of human activity for more accurate and comprehensive results.