College students go nuts for
squirrels, but at the University
of Michigan researchers have
taken an interest as well.
U-M is one of several schools
participating in a research
project called the Kluane Red
Squirrel Project.
Ben Dantzer, an assistant
professor of Psychology and
Ecology
and
Evolutionary
Biology at the University, leads
the research project based in
Yukon, Canada. The study has
been going on for 30 years,
making it the longest running
research project of its kind and
focuses on North American
red squirrels. The goal of the
project is to learn what allows
an animal to be successful
in survival and reproduction
over generations.
Dantzer said his research
allows
scientists
to
know
more about how an animal’s
early life affects its adulthood
traits and behaviors, which
can often be applied to human
topics as well.
“We know that these things
may occur in rats and mice
in laboratory environments,”
Danzter said. “It may occur
in humans but we can’t do
experiments on humans for
obvious reasons, and then lab
mice have a lot of artifacts
where the environment is
constant: they have constant
food, they’re comfortable, they
are fat and happy, literally. In
wild animals, you can kind of
study whether those things
happen in nature where they
are experiencing fluctuations
in their environments and
that’s going to impact those
things.”
The team is also able to
learn more about the impacts
of climate change by observing
how the changing conditions
affect the squirrels, Dantzer
said.
“They give us an idea of
how animals will respond
to global and environmental
changes in terms of reductions
in winter severity, changes
in
precipitation
patterns,
warming
pattern,
things
like that,” Dantzer said. “So
if we’re able to study these
types of questions of how they
adapt to changes in global
climate, then that can help us
to understand better things
about how other animals
might adapt to changing
climates.”
Dantzer
expressed
his
excitement
about
another squirrel research
project being conducted
right on campus. This is
led by Rackham student
Charlotte Devits, who is
researching
the
effects
that an urban environment
has on the survival of
wildlife. Devits’s thesis
project aims to discover
how an urban environment
such as Ann Arbor affects
the behavior of wildlife.
Devits
tags
squirrels,
which allows researchers
to
track
the
squirrels
and
maintain
personal
information about each
one.
The squirrels are tagged
in the Nichols Arboretum,
but they eventually make
their way to the Diag and
other parts of campus. In
an interview posted to
the
Matthaei
Botanical
Gardens
&
Nichols
Arboretum’s website, Devits
said she hopes to uncover
what traits help our squirrels
— formally known as Fox
Squirrels — survive in this
environment, as well as other
cities and urban environments.
She’s also recording data on
health factors, for example,
observing each squirrel for
wounds, parasites, mange and
other conditions.
“We’re trying to understand
what allows the species to
cope with different levels of
urbanization,” Devitz said in
the interview. “We focus on
personality traits to see if a
particular behavior is present
across the study sites.”
Devitz did not respond to
an interview request from The
Michigan Daily.
LSA senior Sanjana Ramesh
said she loves the campus
squirrels and did some digging
into what the ear tags were
when she noticed them.
“I
just
really
like
the
squirrels,”
Ramesh
said.
“There’s this whole meme
going around on the internet
about
how
our
campus’s
squirrels are the best, and I
can definitely conform to that.
I think that the whole part of
the squirrel tags was just new
and I’m really curious.”
Ramesh said that, as a
senior, she had never seen
squirrels with ear tags on
campus.
“I just thought it was
interesting, and I wanted to
know why,” Ramesh said. “I do
know that other animals are
tagged, so I wanted to know.
I figured it was a research
thing because that’s usually
what it is … Thankfully, it
was research and they’re not
trying to kill our squirrels. I
was really scared they were
trying to kill our squirrels.”
2 — Friday, October 11, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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“
I always say that I feel like a freshman here on campus, because I
obviously don’t know the campus as well and stuff like that, but
sometimes being in these classes with all these freshmen, you just kind
of feel like you’re out of place. You come here to Michigan for more
opportunities, but I feel like I’m being set back more than pushed
forward sometimes.”
Zoe Garden, LSA junior, discussing her experience as a transfer student at the University
Every Friday, one Daily staffer will give a behind the scenes look
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discussed covering a protest of former Secretary of State Hillary
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“It was really frustrating because the demonstrator was cooperating
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interjected and advised her not to speak to us. It delegitimized the
role of journalists in covering protests, and it diminished the quality
of our coverage because we were able to get that demonstrator’s
perspectives.”
Julia Fanzeres, Daily Staff Reporter
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ALEC COHEN/Daily
Researchers look at lives of squirrels,
forage for information in series of studies
‘U’ scientists gather data on behavior of campus wildlife, animals in Yukon
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