Squirrels in Central Park, NYC
by Caz Kotsen and Mary Brusco
This website assesses the interactivity between squirrels and humans specifically, in Central Park in 2018. We thought this would be interesting because Mary is from New York and Caz is from New Jersey, so we are both familiar with central park squirrels. Our data sources give us two main types of data. The physical description of the squirrels and the actions of the squirrel. Examples of physical characteristics are the age, color, time of day, and location of the squirrel. Examples of actions of the squirrel include what it is currently doing (running, climbing, eatting) and what it does when it sees the human (tail twitches, moans, quas, runs away). We use the physical data within the data set to find correlations and trends with the squirrels behavior. Data such as location and color and age can be used to analyze different behaviors and activities of the squirrels. We hope to do so in order to make educated conclusions about squirrel behavior.
This visual shows where each colored squirrel in the study is located. Notice how there is one spot where there are no circles, this is because of the Jacqueline Kennedy Reservoir located in the center of Central Park (see image above). This data shows that most of the squirrels in central park are gray and there are a few cinnamon and black colored ones. .
This visual shows where squirrels are located based on age. As previously stated, the gap in the middle is due to the Jacqueline Kennedy Reservoir. The juvenile squirrels are seen more frequently at a lower x-coordinate and a lower y-coordinate. This could potentially mean a breeding area for the squirrels of Central Park. For those who find juvenile squirrels cuter than adult ones, it would be a great place to look.
This visualization attempts to show the trends of quaaing, a sound squirrels make, in squirrels based on their color. As you can see, most of the squirrels did not quaa. However, we see a few of the gray squirrels did, and very little black and cinnamon did. This could be because, as we saw in a previous visualization, there are so many more gray squirrels than cinnamon and black. However, we can conclude that gray squirrels are more likely to quaa in Central Park.
This visualization attempts to show the trends of kuks, a sound squirrels make, in squirrels based on their color. As you can see, most of the squirrels did not kuk. However, we see a few of the gray squirrels did, and very little cinnamon did. This could be because, as we saw in a previous visualization, there are so many more gray squirrels than cinnamon and black. However, we can conclude that gray squirrels are more likely to kuk. Although this visualization looks similar to the last one, it actually differs slightly as no black squirrels kuked.
This visualization shows the frequency of moaning noises that squirrels make. This noise can be a sign that a squirrel is injured. Luckily the chart shows that there were not many encounters with squirrels giving off this noise. In terms of squirrel noises, this sound was found less than any of the other squirrel noises within the data. This shows that squirrels in Central Park are rarely in a state of pain.
This visualization attempts to address whether or not the squirrel approached the reporter based on their color. Most of the squirrels did not approach, however there were a selective few that did. 44 Gray, 14 Cinnamon, and 2 Black squirrels approached. We can conclude that gray squirrels are more likely to approach humans in Central Park.
This visualization attempts to address whether or not the squirrel ran from the reporter based on their color. Most of the squirrels did not run, however there were a selective few that did. 203 Gray, 25 Cinnamon, and 10 Black squirrels approached. We can conclude that gray squirrels are more likely to run from humans in Central Park. In addition, we can conclude that squirrels are more likely to run from humans than approach them in central park.
These boxplots show the frequency of squirrels at x and y coordinates. The line shows the average position that squirrels were encountered at. With the combined help of both of these boxplots, it is clear that the best place to find squirrels in central park is (-73.68,40.778). This would be the recommended location to find the most Central Park squirrels.