Project squirrel was created in 1997 by Wendy Jackson and Joel Brown. Since then over 1,000 people have participated in the project. The two main squirrels that Project Squirrel focus on are the Gray and Fox Squirrels. Project Squirrel was created to learn more about squirrels in Chicago.
Before we went out, we were trained on the differences between the Gray and Fox Squirrels. We leaned that the Gray Squirrels have gray backs, white bellies, and white fringed tails and that Fox Squirrels have rust backs, orange bellies, and black fringed tails.
TEENS participants followed a transect through the local neighborhoods counted how many Fox and Gray Squirrels we saw. As we walked we also noted observations of the environment that might affect the squirrels habitat, such as garbage, construction, bird feeders, pets and predators. After we were done taking all our observations we reported them through the projects website.
If you want to learn about or participate in this project go to: Project Squirrel
-Malik G.
