Observing Squirrel Behaviour in a Suburban Backyard in Newmarket, Ontario
Note: for some reason over the past week. I have been unable to access the course website on my computer and home wifi, so I’m using my phone with my phone data. Apologies for the late upload
Date: Feb 7th
Time: 2:30pm-3:00pm
Location: Private backyard in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada
Coordinates: 44.099899374179294, -79.50074754182087
Weather Conditions:
The temperature stood at approximately 4°C with a light breeze blowing at a speed of 2.1 m/s. The relative humidity was recorded at
61%. It was a typically Partly sunny spring day in Ontario, with conditions that are not too harsh for local wildlife.
Nestled in the suburban area of Newmarket, Ontario, my backyard offers a unique opportunity to observe the behavioral patterns of squirrels. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I shifted my research focus from Bailey Ecological Park to the micro-ecosystem that lies just beyond my back door.
Study Site Description:
My suburban backyard offers a unique opportunity to observe the interaction of squirrels with their environment. It includes various microhabitats such as a wooden deck, fence and the ground which provides a range of food resources and potential for diverse interactions with other wildlife.
Research Project Questions:
- How does the presence of food resources affect squirrel foraging behavior in a suburban backyard?
- What impact do other animals, such as birds, foxes and jackrabbits, have on squirrel activity?
- How do squirrels utilize different areas of the backyard with varying levels of food availability and competition?
Field Journal Observations:
Location 1: Fence
The fence area is frequented by both birds and squirrels. Food resources here are relatively scarce, which may influence foraging behavior.
Location 2: Ground
A ground frequented by squirrels, foxes, offering a higher food resource level
Location 3: Wooden Deck
The wooden deck is the domain of the squirrels, with no noticeable competition. Food resources here are plentiful.
Hypothesis:
The foraging activity of squirrels is inversely related to the presence of competitors in the backyard.
Prediction:
Based on the hypothesis, it is expected that the highest level of squirrel foraging activity will occur on and under the wooden deck where there is an abundance of food and no competition, and the lowest level of activity will be seen in the fence area where food resources are low and competition is high.
Methodology:
– Response Variable: The behavioral measure of foraging activity, which includes time spent foraging and the frequency of visits to food sources.
– Explanatory Variables: The abundance of food (high, medium, low) and the presence of competitors (none, low, high).
Observational Method:
Since this is an observational study, I will record squirrel activity at each location using a consistent observation method, without directly interacting with or feeding the squirrels.
Conclusion:
This study aims to contribute to our understanding of how urban wildlife, specifically squirrels, adapt to their environment and how they are affected by the availability of food and the presence of competitors. The findings could have implications for wildlife management and conservation efforts in urban areas.
-Blog Post 5: Constructive criticism of another blog post
Your study on squirrel behaviour is so cool I’m very interested to see the results of your research questions. A thought I had while reading was whether you consider the types of food the squirrels were eating whether they were natural or human-provided and also how to plan to categorize the levels of competition between squirrels. I like your prediction and hypothesis but wondering about confounding variables like human activity in the backyard or seasonal changes in food availability, how do you plan on dealing with that? Overall this will be a cool project for understanding residential squirrel behavioural dynamics and I’m excited to hear about the results.
okay interesting – note that you should qualify and say competition is “potentially high”, unless you have observed competitive behaviour
you can set the stage for this by describing the areas, tracks of other animals etc
the gradient here seems to be related to competitor presence or absence – you might want to develop those definitions, as noted above, not so much on observation but on characteristics (tracks, cover, previous observation etc).
If food resources were equal, would animal still forage the same time in all locations?
theoritically, if competition was a factor, there might be more or earlier visits to those locations