Gray Squirrel Behavior

1
Gray Squirrel Behavior
2
Objective

• To find out if living among a greater human
  population will change behavior as compared to a
  natural environment.
• To determine if time of day affects squirrel
  activity
• To determine what causes the size of territory

3
Site Information

• We had several sites that we choose to watch and
  observe
• We observed at various times of the day to try
  and get an accurate picture of the squirrels
  behavior.
• The different sites we used included
• A city backyard
• Bellarmines campus around the dorms
• Seneca Park
• Beargrass Creek

4
Park Observations

• Early in the morning was when this site was most
  active.
• There were usually two to four squirrels in site
  at a time during the hours of 800- 1200
• After about 1200 the squirrel activity slowed
  down. The activity also remained mostly in the
  trees at this point
• After 400 the squirrel activity was practically
  nonexistent. After 800 was the same.

5
PARK Observations (CON.)

• Around the trees was the highest activity.
• Most of the activity on the ground was chasing
  after food like nuts or other small food
  particles
• The tree activity included chasing other
  squirrels, breaking open nuts as seen by the nut
  casings all around the main trees, and chattering
  at humans or other animals nearby as a type of
  warning.
• A particular observation of this site was that
  squirrels seemed to not take kindly to my
  presence.
• The activity was lower during the beginning of my
  observation and squirrels never attempt to come
  near me.
• Even when offered food the squirrels avoided
  close contact with humans, but when returning
  later in the day the food was gone.

6
Beargrass Observations

• This site was across the street from Bellarmine
  College but far enough away so that very few
  humans were around during observation.
• The squirrels in this area were more spread out
  and harder to find. Our particular site was home
  to only one or two squirrels
• Nests were easy to find in the large trees after
  the leaves fell.
• The telltale clumps of hanging leaves showed us
  that the squirrel population was there.
• The activity again centered around early morning
  and early afternoon with very little night
  activity.

7
Beargrass Observations (con)

• There again was no human/squirrel contact even
  when food was offered.
• Many times food left for a couple hours would
  still be there upon return.
• The conclusion was that the lower the
  concentration of food the lower the population.
  Greater territory for a single squirrel was
  assumed because few squirrels were spotted at a
  time.

8
Dorm Observations

• This site was located around Lenihan and
  Bonaventure.
• Chosen because even though there is human contact
  with the site, there also is a lot of trees and
  cover for the squirrels to enjoy.
• This site had by far the most activity both on
  the ground and in the trees.
• The number of squirrels during the morning and
  afternoon almost doubled from any other site.
• Close contact with humans was seen frequently and
  food offered was taken when four to five yards
  away from our observation point.

9
Dorm Observations (con)

• The domestication of the squirrels probably
  developed over the years due to close contact
  with humans.
• The abundance of food from both the many walnut
  trees and the huge trash cans around the dorms
  allowed for more squirrels around the site.
• This causes there to be smaller areas of
  territory and therefore better chance of human
  contact.

10
Observations of intraspecies activity

• The site with the most intraspecies activity was
  the site at Bellarmine. The squirrels were very
  active with each other. Chasing each other away
  from territory, chattering back and forth from
  rival trees, and being altogether sociable.
• The park site was less obvious but the aggressive
  tendencies were obvious. When two squirrels were
  in the same area there usually was a dominant one
  who would chase off the other one and controlled
  the greater food source.

11
Observations of intraspecies activity

• The Beargrass Creek site was hard to observe
  intraspecies activity because there usually was
  only one or occasionally two squirrels in our
  site area. This was because of the lack of a
  dense food supply causing territories to be much
  larger.

12
Conclusions about Activity time

• First the squirrel activity did not change that
  much from site to site. The observation time in
  relation to density of squirrel activity was
  basically this for all sites
• The most activity was between 800-1200
• Followed by 300 and 500
• The next was between 1200 and 300
• The lowest was any time after about 600 or after
  sunset.

13
Conclusion about size of territory

• Territory seems to be relational to amount of
  food and the density of the trees.
• The greatest number of squirrels were found
  around Bellarmines Dorms which had the greatest
  source of both manmade food and greatest density
  of nut producing trees that we observed
• Next was Seneca Park which had several nut
  producing trees and other food sources. However
  the density of the trees was less then that of
  the Dorm site causing less area for the squirrels
  to nest in.
• The Beargrass site was the highest density of
  trees but many of them were not nut producing,
  causing territory size to be fairly large

14
Conclusions about Human Contact

• The ability to withstand human contact seems to
  be an acquired trait.
• The only squirrels that seemed to take to human
  offerings as close contact was at Bellarmines
  dorms.
• The conclusion for this seems to be as territory
  shrinks and food sources become less dense,
  contact occurs more frequently out of need and
  not want.