Squirrelytics: Central Park Squirrels

STA/ISS 313 - Spring 2024 - Project 1

Team Arthur

Introduction

  • October 2018 census of squirrels Central Park
  • Volunteers recorded data about 3,023 squirrels and 31 variables, including:
    • information about the sighting
    • squirrel characteristics
    • activities

Question 1: Where do different colors and ages of squirrels reside in Central Park?

Figure 1

The map, Squirrel 2018 Census Info Central Park, displays where squirrels are located within central park, with the x axis being latitude and the y axis being longitude. The points are colored according to fur color (black, cinnamon, & gray) and sized according to age (adult and juvenile). The visualization shows that squirrels are distributed somewhat evenly throughout central park regardless of fur color or age, although there seems to be some clusters of squirrels that group together according to their color. There are significantly more gray squirrel sightings than black or cinnamon.

Figure 1: Map of squirrel location within central park by age and color.

Figure 2

The bar chart, Count of Squirrels Above vs On Ground, displays the number of squirrels that were found residing on versus above ground, from -1800 to 800 on the y axis. It is grouped according to fur color (black, cinnamon, and gray). The visualization shows that squirrels are more likely to reside on ground than above regardless of fur color. It also points to the number of gray squirrels there are in comparison to black and cinnamon squirrels, with black being the least cited."

Figure 2: Bar chart of squirrels residing on the ground VS above-ground by fur color.

Question 2: How are squirrel activities affected by the time of day or interactions with humans?

Figure 3

The lollipop chart, Count of Squirrels who Partake in Different Activities, displays the count of squirrels who were found taking part in one of the following activities: chasing, climbing, eating, foraging, and running. Count is displayed from 0 to 800 on the y axis. The activities were filtered by time of day (AM or PM) on the x axis. Squirrels were found chasing the least often. Climbing, eating, and running followed, and they had similar values to one another. Squirrels were found foraging the most, with more squirrels found foraging more in the PM compared to the AM.

Figure 3: A lollipop chart displaying count of squirrels activites by time of day.

Figure 4

The bar chart, Distribution of Activity Type by Human Interaction, displays how activity type effects how squirrels interact with humans. The y axis displays activity types (running, foraging, eating, climbing, and chasing) and the x axis displays the percentage from 0 to 100 percent. The fill contains the following interactions with humans: runs from, indifferent, and approaches. For running, the squirrels equally ran from or were indifferent to humans, and rarely approached. For foraging, climbing, and chasing, squirrels ran from humans 25 percent of the time and were indifferent a majority of the time. For climbing, squirrels were indifferent the most often, closely followed by runs from.

Figure 4: A bar chart displaying distribution of activity type by human interaction

Conclusion

  1. Location of squirrels within Central Park is VARIED

  2. Behaviors of squirrels is COMPLEX

  3. There are LIMITATIONS to our visualizations