Blog Post 3-Ongoing Field Observations

Upon reading the academic journal on territory, dispersal, and density of red squirrels, I discovered that the area they use in the forest is much smaller than what I have observed with my own squirrel  Depending on habitat quality (food sources, aerial walkways, low predation rates, nesting sites), forest squirrels have a mean average siᴢe of <1 ha, but much larger 1.6-4.8 ha in times of food scarcity.  As you will see in the photos, the red squirrel has an abundance of food sources, from spruce cones, douglas fir cones, pine cones, gardens, fruit trees, chicken coops (grain), maple trees (seeds), walnut tree, not to mention fungi, bird’s eggs, invertebrate, and juvenile mice.  The sex of the squirrel is unknown but males and females are similar with the males being slightly larger.  This squirrel has been here 2 years but I have not seen any young, yet.  There is an abundance of trees for aerial walkways and and these trees also aid in protection from…

predation.  Squirrels create “middens” throughout their territory and have one central “midden” where they store an abundance of food cache for winter.  Predation is by weasel, martin, coyote, cat, dog, and all aerial predators (hawks, owls).  I believe my woodpile is the central “midden” in this area.

I have broken up the territory into 4 environmental quadrants all ranging in siᴢe of approximately 1.5 ha.  Taking into account where I have seen the squirrel travel, I would say his/her territory encompasses about 5 ha.

I have decided to focus on why the squirrel has chosen my woodpile in quadrant B, to make as his central ‘midden’.  I will show  it is the density of the conifer trees in this quadrant that brought this squirrel to be in my woodpile and not in woodpiles in the other quadrants.

The response variable for my project will be my woodpile.  The predictor variable will be the conifer trees in the squirrel’s 5 ha territory.  My hypothesis will be that the red squirrel chose my woodpile  as his central “midden” because of the number of cone bearing trees in quadrant B.