Squirrels?

What to write about? I know that many of us had this exact question in our minds when we first read this assignment. It took me a long time to finally think about what I wanted to write about. Most of the time that all this thinking was taking place…well actually, to be honest I couldn’t think of anything to write about. It’s when I was joking around with my friend about what to write about that I came to my funny, yet (maybe) quite interesting idea. It went something like this:

“I can’t think about anything to write about! I might as well just write about freaking squirrels!”

That’s when a little light in my head went off. I’ll write about squirrels. I’ll write about squirrels in urban environments. Why not? I mean I see them everyday on campus, walking in the park, in the store parking lots, everywhere! Being that I see them everywhere I go I figure that I can observe their eating habits, size, and behavior towards humans based on their environment. I would like to try and see some type of distinguishable difference in the squirrels based on all these things, not just one.

I feel that this subject is a little weird and a little erroneous to some people, but the more that I think about it, it really relates to my biology major. In my biology major, I am currently learning about adaptive behaviors in species, based on their change in their environment. It all has a lot to do with genetic drift and natural selection; all things that relate back to theories of evolution. Thus, I feel that if I can relate my knowledge of these theories, I can use them in my everyday life to help my in my essay. Not only will I gain a new light in my major and in my observations, but I can learn about the animals around me. Just call me “Dr. Doolittle-ette”. Yes, soon I will be able to talk to the animals, live with the animals and relate to the animals. Well, maybe not all that.

Overall, I feel that this essay will be very funny for some to read but, also very enlightening. I know that it may even be a joke for some, and it was when I first started brain-storming but, I feel it really feel like it could give a lot of insight to the squirrels we see everyday. So in order to really make this observation essay worth it, I feel that I need to observe squirrels in three different types of urban environments. The first setting is going to be here on Auraria Campus at the North Classroom buildings. The second environment is going to be at a Cheeseman park here in Denver. Finally the last urban environment that I plan to observe squirrels at is going to be a local Denver supermarket. I really feel that I will find behavior adaptations based on each of these environments due to the amount of people that surround the squirrels, food sources, and places in which they live. I also plan to talk to a few biologists, which deal with animal adaptations. So even though this essay started out as a joke, I am actually really excited and anxious to observe squirrels. Happy squirrel watching to me!