A squirrel census is a

thoughts: general topic of squirrel censuses so we don't need to deal with continuity of a single project. maybe add a section on the general idea and a separate section listing the different censuses.

• where'd it come from
• cover NYC and atlanta censuses

• how does it work

• usage of the data in scientific studies

• Landman 2024
  • 2012 census in Inman Park in Atlanta, Georgia, "Inman Park Squirrel Census"
  • Eastern gray squirrels
  • Jamie Allen, person who started the project. Worked as an "advertising copywriter" and short fiction writer, started in digital news at CNN. Inspired by "his dog's squirrel obsession".
  • have been prior tracking of squirrel migrations, incl Great Squirrel Migration of 1963, where eastern gray squirrels travelled around the eastern US "probably in search of food". reported on by Vagn Flyger, whose work inspired the Squirrel Census's method
  • 2012 method: mapped Inman Park by hectare, assigned a few volunteers to each hectare. of the course of april 2012, recorded squirrels in the hectare for 20 minutes at a time. used a formula introduced by Flyger to estimate squirrel counts
  • "...the Squirrel Census's chief purpose was to produce not science but story"
  • late 2018, squirrel census in central park. during the project, based out of The Explorers Club
  • 2018, volunteers noted squirrels and their size, color, activity, location, and other information
  • the project went on "extended hiatus" in march 2021, still true at time of publishing
• Lu 2020
  • started by Jamie Allen, a writer
  • 2018 census: volunteers signed up for shifts to walk around an area for 20 minutes. when they saw a squirrel, they'd note the location and a set of traits
  • over 320 volunteers over two weeks
  • counted more than 3000 squirrels
  • used Flyger's formula to adjust for counts
  • fall 2019, released data publicly
• Miller 2019
  • describes the Squirrel Census as "a multimedia science, design, and storytelling project focusing on the Eastern gray" squirrel.
  • atlanta visit in september 2019 "celebrating their adventures" in central park
  • had done censuses in Inman Park in 2012 and 2015
  • doesn't seem there was a 2019 census, just a presentation there
  • 2018 central park census supported by: " The Explorers Club, NYU Department of Environmental Studies, Macaulay Honors College, the Central Park Conservancy, and New York City Department of Parks & Recreation"
• Daley 2019
  • over 300 volunteers over 11 days in october 2018
  • organization produced and sold written and audio reports of their findings, a map of squirrel locations, and squirrel-themed baseball cards. described as "the hipster version of a scientific journal, with much better fonts"
  • first squirrel census was Atlanta's Inman Park, then again in 2015