Christopher Bernal

        One species of animal that I encountered was the eastern gray squirrel, while it may seem like a very common creature in our neck of the woods , that being the northeastern part of the United States, it is actually not that common to sees squirrels in high populations in other parts of the country, this is mainly due to the fact that squirrels really only live in high forested areas that contain a lot of foods that are vital to their survival such as nuts and fruits. It is important to understand that these animals also generally forage alone and they tend to just go out for feeding whenever necessary. These species are also interesting to find within an urban area because most urban areas don’t offer much forestation to live off of. However in my time making observations of the green spaces within the city I have noticed that the squirrels  have increased in population throughout smaller areas of the city , especially where trees and other vegetation lies, I’d like to believe that this is due to the natural cause of deforestation. There are quite a number of trees that get cut down every year, especially nowadays this might result in much of the wildlife that live in trees such as squirrels and birds to begin to migrate towards more urban settings where more similar- built forestation is in place. That being said this is just a theory and may not be an accurate assumption. There are also many other factors that may contribute to the large increase of squirrel population, such as irregular temperatures throughout the year and or lack of supply of food. That being said it will be interesting to see the patterns and the range of increase and decrease of the eastern gray squirrel population throughout the following months to come.