Meeting Abstract
Urbanization can affect native species by altering their food availability, habitat structure, and other factors of survival, such as predation. An urban environment provides species with increased anthropogenic food sources that can affect body condition. The Saint Mary’s College campus in Notre Dame, IN is an urban environment that supports a robust fox squirrel population (Sciurus niger). This arboreal squirrel relies heavily on campus resources for food, breeding grounds, and shelter. Our study focuses on the differences in scaled body mass between female and male fox squirrels (Sciurus niger) captured on campus during the months of June and July 2019. Previous work on sexual dimorphism in small mammals has found that males usually weigh more than females for purposes of mate competition and defense. We collected measurements of body mass, body length, tail length, ear length, and hindfoot length. These values were used to generate scaled mass indices for male and female fox squirrels. Each individual was sexed and tagged with a stainless steel ear tag for identification purposes. Scaled body mass is indicative of body condition, which is a more accurate way to assess the health of an individual compared to mass alone. Our results indicate that there is no significant difference in female and male scaled body mass and body condition. Failure to detect differences in scaled body mass between female and male fox squirrels may be attributed to the timing of data collection and small sample size. Future work will include additional year-round data collection over the course of several years to generate a long-term profile of body mass trends within the Saint Mary’s College squirrel population.
