Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Are campus squirrels less likely to freeze than other squirrels when seeing a human?

Introduction
                It was observed that squirrels will sometimes “freeze” after they have been running, climbing, ect.  When they do this, they will not move any body part for at least ten seconds.  It seems that in general, animals will do this as a way to confuse or hide from a predator.  On a campus community, however, squirrels will tend to be less afraid of humans and movement than squirrels in less urban areas.
Materials and Methods
                To test this hypothesis, squirrels would need to be observed on campuses and rural areas.  The number of times that a squirrel is seen freezing for ten or more seconds would need to be recorded.  To be consistent, the same number of squirrels would need to be observed in each area and the observing would need to take place during the same time of day.  Once a squirrel is spotted in motion, have a human quietly start to approach the squirrel.  Record whether or not the squirrel freezes or continues to move.  The human should wear the same clothing each time and not carry any objects.  One error with this experiment that is unable to be avoided is the distance from which the squirrel will spot or hear the human approaching.  The variability in distances may be one factor that influences the squirrel to freeze or continue moving.  Since there are only two variables with this experiment, a t-test could be performed for statistical analysis.
Blanchard, D., Griebel, G., Pobbe, R., & Blanchard, R. J. (2011). Risk assessment as an evolved threat       detection and analysis process. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 35(4), 991-998. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2010.10.016

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