The NYC Squirrel Census is back with new results — and a toll-free number (New York: townhome)

[Aeran]

lol. Now I've heard everything. Squirrels are kind of cute... I guess. It's the bushy tail that differentiates them from a rat or other such rodent.

https://gothamist.com/news/the-nyc-s...ll-free-number

Scientifically speaking, a squirrel is just a rodent, sharing this status with mice and rats, fellow denizens of New York City parks. But something about these wide-eyed, bushy-tailed fearless acrobats draws the attention of any park-goer.

That’s what inspired 72 New Yorkers to venture into parks for a single afternoon in early March 2020 to count and observe squirrels in 24 parks in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Their findings, entitled Squirrels, Parks and the City: A (very serious) data-gathering expedition, were released Friday by The Squirrel Census. The results are accessible through NYC Open Data, a site that publishes free public data provided by city agencies and other groups.

This census, which is run by a rag-tag group of data scientists and moonlighting naturalists, spotted 433 squirrels overall. Tompkins Square Park in the East Village had the most sightings. Four parks — Sternberg and Cooper Parks in Brooklyn as well as Thomas Paine and Sara D. Roosevelt Parks in Manhattan — recorded zero sightings. Grey squirrels were the most common (390 total), followed by cinnamon-colored squirrels (26) and then black squirrels (16). One squirrel entry wasn’t labeled with a color.

[Kefir King]

So that's 72 people with a LOT of extra time on their hands having a few lesure hours, strolling parks.

I am sure their data is worthless. Likely they counted one in a hundred squirrels.


I like squirrels and carry peanuts with me in my shopping bag.

[Aeran]

That's why they're so brazen. They come right up to you and refuse to leave if you're sitting down munching on a snack. lol.

[popartist]

We had squirrels terrorizing the few of us coming to the office last summer/fall - a family set up home under one of the air conditioners and mama was a bit psycho, almost clawed her way into the office through the plastic shields on either side of the air conditioner and would often appear spread eagled in the window, or banging against it. And there wasn't a heck of a lot we could do about them either, as we found out! The window faced a big block sized interior courtyard with all the townhome backyards surrounding it.

[Cida]

There's a SQUIRREL census?