Squirrel abundance in natural and urban environment

Data collected by: David, Jessie, Mark, Martina, Patrick Method: In order to support our hypothesis that squirrel population is abundant in urban environment compared to natural environment, we set to collect data in habitats representing these two environments. Data for the natural environment was collected from Danby Woods and Boynton Woods on York University Keele Campus. Data for the urban environment was collected from random human populated grounds in York University Keele Campus. A transect of 100 paces was sampled 20 times each in urban and natural environment - 20 on campus, 10 in Danby and 10 in Boynton. The abundance of squirrels, humans, food, colour of the squirrels were noted. The woodlots was the control group as it was the natural environment of the squirrels. Transect Number: Stands for the number of transect sampled. Squirrel Abundance: Number of squirrels found within the visible area in a transect. Distance: Measured in meters. It is the distance away from the transect where a squirrel was spotted. Human Abundance: Measured on a scale of 0 - 2. It is an approximation of human population present in the area where the transect was sampled. 0 - no humans; 1 - less than 5 humans; 2 - more than 5 humans Food Density: Measured on a scale of 0 - 2. It is an approximation of abundance of food present, natural or human food in the area where the transect was sampled. 0 - no humans; 1 - less than 5 humans; 2 - more than 5 humans Colour: The coat colour of the squirrels were noted additionally. Observed colours were grey and black. Location: Transects were sampled randomly on campus and in the woodlots, Danby and Boynton. Legend: B - black (colour) G - grey (colour) C - campus (location) BW - Boynton woods (location) DW - Danby woods (location) Data collected on: October 14th (Day 1 - 16 degrees) and October 21st (Day 2 - ~10 degrees)