Script Flashcards
Slide 1
Acknowledge my academic supervisor Dr. Matthew Bulbert and Dr. Michael Jackson as well as my field partner Calum Ryan
Slide 2
-UK Grey and red squirrels share habitats in deciduous and conifer forests - compete for the resources like seeds and shrubs during foraging.
-Grey squirrels larger at 380-525 millimeters in length 315 millimeters longer than reds.
-Greys forage faster which allows them to source food more efficiently.
-Greys guard seeds from reds by storing them in hard to access areas
-Strip bark of oak and beach trees that make red specific habitats and reduce their availability
-Reds less adaptable adapt to habitat loss and greys have multiple habitat ranges that change seasonally.
-Greys display intelligent behaviour – stopping growth of red’s oak trees by cutting their radicles before germination
-Greys host squirrel pox that spread to reds but greys have antibodies and resist symptoms whilst reds die weeks after exposure.
Slide 3
Scent’s use in trapping
-Contributed to reducing European population of infectious greys by 4% from 2003-2010
- So scent use trapping can reduce grey squirrel populations and the spread of disease
- less competition for reds so they thrived
-Baits such as hazelnut paste have been used to override smell of immunocontraceptives hidden in it
-makes greys infertile when consumed
-can contribute to future efforts to lower populations.
Slide 4
-Baits chosen - been successfully used in previous studies on grey squirrel populations - Coconut oil chosen as lacks strong odour.
-Study replicated structure of the ‘A18 Grey Squirrel & Rat Trap – With Counter’ trap
– kills squirrels by bolting their heads when they stick heads in traps hole
-So, squirrel sticking head into trap counted as significant attraction to baits in study
– Also if squirrels showed any interactive behaviors at the baits that wasn’t head sticking in cup instances were counted as indicators of potential attraction.
-Research intended to show most successful bait in significant attraction and potential attraction to contribute to use in traps for relocating greys out of reds habitats
-Aim to evaluate the baits’ attractiveness based off if baits were significantly more attractive than coconut oil and the quantity and types of interactive behaviours they caused most often.
Slide 5
-Pilot study - area of Whytham woods that had the most greys activity out of 1800s plantation, 1900s plantation, secondary woodland and disturbed ancient semi natural woodland.
- Camera traps filmed two cups attached upside down to trees over a week
-Footage showed disturbed ancient semi natural woodland had most activity.
-Centrifuge tubes were sealed and frozen in a freezer or six hours
-Cups were left for a day before data collection for assimilation time for squirrels
-Over week 2 cups containing baits and control screwed upside down onto opposing faces of a tree trunk.
-String tied open centrifuge tubes containing the baits to the inside of the cups through two holes cut into the sides of the cups.
– String tied around the top of the cups and secured with tape.
-Opening of cups replicated the entrance to the A18 rat and squirrel trap
-Camera traps attached to nearby trees and filmed squirrel interactions with the baits at one-minute intervals.
-Ethograms plotted to identify the squirrel’s interactive behaviors with the baits.
-Using Microsoft excel three graphs were plotted to show the number of times baits induced certain interactive behaviors, and overall number of interactive behavior, and number of times each bait got a squirrel’s head in a cup.
-Using R software and packages ‘reshape 2’ and ‘stats’ Friedman’s tests were conducted on bait’s success compared to the control to get squirrels heads in the cups and baits’ success in causing any of the interactive behaviors from the squirrels.
Slide 6
-25th and 26th January, lane 2 and 3 sunflower seeds with coconut oil attracted squirrels to stick their head into a cup five times
-26th of January, lane 3 peanut butter with coconut oil attracted squirrels members to stick their head into a cup four times.
-25th, 27th, and 28th January, lanes 2, 4, and 5, rolled oats with coconut oil attracted squirrel member to put its head into a cup one time
- On the 26th of January in lane 3, coconut oil attracted an eastern grey squirrel to stick its head into a cup one time
-Showed that the baits of sunflower seeds and peanut butter with coconut oil were more successful at attracting eastern grey squirrels than the rolled oats with coconut oil bait and the coconut oil control.
-However, Friedman’s test showed not a significant difference between success of coconut oil mixed with peanut butter, rolled oats, and sunflower seeds compared to the coconut oil control in getting an squirrels to stick its head into a cup.
Slide 7
Shown here interactive behaviours of grey squirrels that were identified in the footage as well as cases of no interaction. –Behaviours identified were squirrels sticking their heads into the cups, tugging on the baits string, tugging on the cups, smelling the cups, looking into the cups, biting the bait containers, and stealing the bait containers from the cups.
- Ethogram codes for the identified behaviours and baits are shown which are used in the upcoming results.
Slide 8
-Most expressed behaviour in lane 4 was smelling the cups containing peanut butter and coconut oil fourteen times
-Other greatly expressed behaviours were in lane 3 and lane 6 which were tugging on the cups for and biting the bait containers of peanut butter and coconut oil ten times.
-The last notably expressed behaviours were, in lanes 8 and 11 where squirrels stuck their head into cups containing sunflower seeds and coconut oil nine times and smelled cups containing sunflower seeds and coconut oil ten times.
-Results confirmed most common behaviours squirrels expressed whilst interacting with coconut oil and peanut butter were smelling and tugging on the cups and biting the bait containers.
-Also confirmed most common behaviours squirrels expressed whilst interacting with sunflower seeds and coconut oil was sticking their head into the cups and smelling them.
Slide 9
-Peanut butter and coconut oil yielded most interactive behaviours by squirrels in lane 1 at forty-one times and sunflower seeds and coconut oil yielded second most interactive behaviours by squirrels in lane 2 at twenty-five times.
-Rolled oats and coconut oil yielded the second lowest number of interactive behaviours by eastern grey squirrels in lane 3 at six times
- Coconut oil control yielded the least number of interactive behaviours by eastern grey squirrels in lane 4 at four times.
-Results confirmed that the baits for peanut butter and sunflower seeds with coconut oil yielded noticeably greater interactions from squirrels than rolled oats and coconut oil bait and the coconut oil control.
- Results of Friedman’s test showed significant difference between success of coconut oil with peanut butter and sunflower seeds compared to rolled oats and coconut oil and the coconut oil control in causing eastern grey squirrels to display the identified interactive behaviours.
Slide 10
-Results showed that sunflower seeds were found to be the most effective at attracting squirrels
-Not sig. better at attracting squirrels than coconut oil contrasted by its use in other trapping studies - Study in 2014 by Pardo studied grey squirrel communication through tail movement was investigated after using sunflower seeds as a lure at traps. – ((And Huynh in 2010 culled grey squirrel populations using traps lured with sunflower seeds)).
-Induced significantly more interactive behaviours than coconut oil backed by other studies – In 2013 Boeing caused interactive behaviors by squirrels by luring them with sunflower seeds to study energy expenditure during foraging.
-Most often occurring interactive behaviours caused were smelling and sticking head in cup
-Head sticking already showed attraction but cup smelling at minimum could be counted as potential interest argued in study by Deschenes 2021 that smelling object was sign of significant interest instead.
-Evidence for potential use in future relocation projects
-The results showed peanut butter second most effective bait at attracting squirrels and it lured the second greatest number but not sig. better at attracting squirrels than coconut oil. Contrasted by successful use in other trapping studies – In 2021 Atman tested baits for rodent luring and was successful with peanut butter.
-It triggered the most interactive behaviors by squirrels out of the baits, and significantly more than the coconut oil control which was supported by studies – In 2008 Hopewell studied grey squirrel competition and food availability by marking them through luring them to traps with peanut butter.
-Most displayed interactive behaviors peanut butter induced were smelling and tugging on the cup as well as biting the bait container – study by Deschenes in 2021 supported smelling cups and study by Andelt and Woolley in 1996 treated bait container biting as sign of sig. attraction. Study by Mills in 2016 claimed cup tugging was behaviour from desire for investigation instead of attraction.
–But overall interactive behaviours were potential attraction and two supported by literature as signs of significant attraction
-Evidence for potential use in future relocation projects
Slide 11
-Results showed that least effective bait at luring squirrels
-Not sig. better at attracting squirrels than coconut oil which was contrasted by other studies which used it for trapping, but studies potentially outdated (Study in 1999 by Henny investigating vertebrate fauna, used rolled oats as trap baits.)
They also supplied evidence that rolled oats better lure to attract rats then squirrels. (Study in 2001 by Smith and Zollner found other rodent species such as cotton mice were trapped significantly more frequently than grey squirrels when rolled oats was the trap bait).
-Not significantly more successful than the coconut oil control at causing eastern grey squirrels to undergo interactive behaviors which was contrasted by other studies but they also could be outdated (Dueser and brown 1980 studied rodent species richness by luring grey squirrel with rolled oats in traps)
-This is as newer squirrel luring studies such as one by Beatham in 2023 didn’t use rolled oats but other lures such as hazelnut spread – also older studies found used baits of rolled oats mixed with more attractive baits such as peanut butter and sunflower seeds in a study by Oxley in 1974 investigating the effect of road traffic on grey squirrels
- Implies for rolled oats to be a successful lure in modern studies they have to be mixed with other lures. and that rolled oats as a grey squirrel lure potentially outdated.
-Also rolled oats did not induce significantly greater interactive behaviours than coconut oil – showing grey squirrels held little desire to interact with them at their cups.
-Evidence for not using them in future luring of grey squirrels
Slide 12
-More research needed on comparing success of sunflower seeds, peanut butter and rolled oats to other documented highly successful grey squirrel baits like hazelnut spread and pumpkin seeds to see if sunflower seeds, peanut butter, and rolled oats are the three most successful baits possible for luring grey squirrels.
- If experiment repeated the interactive behaviours of bait container biting and stealing should count as sig. attracted behaviours – makes experiment more accurate and in this experiment squirrel either had to stick head in to do so or get to bait to do so showing attraction.
-There were weaknesses to methodology - If experiment was repeated need to use sturdier equipment and change method so that holes aren’t needed in side of cup to keep bait in place – makes it so only head in cup behaviour that counts as sig attraction can be exerted to get into cup instead of bait stealing through side holes.
-If experiment was repeated Investigate whether peanut butter, sunflower seeds and rolled oats can attract reds less and induce less interactive behaviours as to take greys out red’s habitat it would be more useful to only attract greys with baits – moller in 1986 found reds preferred maize, peanuts, and hazelnuts to peanut butter and rolled oats so the potential that peanut butter and rolled oats can successfully lure more eastern grey squirrels than red squirrels for use in relocation is apparent but additional studies on the bait’s luring success on both species are required. - if the quantity of times the red squirrels stuck their heads into cups is lower than grey squirrels with the same baits, then this may suggest that luring and trapping more eastern grey squirrels than red squirrels in red squirrel habitats would be possible. This possibility would also be emphasized by how eastern grey squirrels are larger than red squirrels so they would potentially outcompete them for the baits and interact with the traps more. - Allow eastern grey squirrels to be lured into traps and then relocated out of red squirrel habitats successfully.
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