“Many questions about squirrel life and behavior remain unanswered,” said Joel Brown. Brown currently serves as a University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) biologist, professor, and resident rodent expert.
“UIC’s Squirrel Count Is On”, an ongoing UIC website launched in 2001 (www.uic.edu/depts/bios/squirrel), gives a complete mission statement explaining what Brown and his University of Illinois colleague, Wendy Jackson, hope to accomplish.
As explained in a nutshell on Dec. 17 to the Dallas Morning News, he is “trying to get a glimpse of what your life is like if you are a city squirrel.”
Professor Brown and his team of UIC students are in the business of trapping squirrels in the Chicago area and nearby suburbs. This is not a terribly hard task, as they are the most conspicuous wild animals in both urban and suburban settings. As a part of their study, they will take skin samples for DNA testing and analyze the data that they have gathered in the field.
They plan to strap tag radio wave identification collars on each captured animal to observe what they do in their environment. The team will also attach threads to acorns and hazelnuts to determine where squirrels take them and how and when they eat them.
The squirrel species that Brown and his team of students will be catching are the gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) and the fox squirrel (Sciurus niger). Gray squirrels are noted by their gray backs and sides, white/gray bellies and white-fringed tails. Fox squirrels are noted by their orange / rust backs and sides, orange bellies and black fringed tails.
The “Project Squirrel” Web site invites the public to take part in Brown’s study. He provides a checklist of things to take note of including where squirrels live, which species of trees they use, and questions about dog and cat interaction with the squirrel populations in both Chicago areas and nearby suburbs.
The site provides a data entry form for those who wish to submit their observations. Basically, the data entry form is a population census for squirrel population species for both the gray squirrel and the fox squirrel. If you wish to help Brown, contact him at squirrel@uic.edu. He is more than happy to reply to your questions and comments.