Abstract: This project was probably one of the most interesting ones as we had to go outside and observe a plant or an animal or whatever we wanted and write about it. We also had to research whatever we chose, so for example I had to research a lot about squirrels that we commonly see here in NYC. 

Isn’t it fascinating that squirrels weren’t even in most parks before the 19th century? The eastern gray squirrel or the Sciurus carolinensis are one of the most common rodents you’ll see in parks or just by walking around. These restless creatures with a bushy tail mostly eat nuts and seeds and hide them so they can later eat them in the winter when there is less food. Most of the time you’ll see a squirrel, it’s them running around a tree. You see for a couple seconds before they run away to look for more food.

This type of squirrel is one of the most common you’ll find all around your life. You will usually see them coming down from a tree, not climbing, but running. One of the first things you observe is their long and fuzzy brown tail followed by their foot long body and their big black eyes, looking for the next nearest thing to climb.  You see them for a couple seconds before they are out of your line of sight, and probably life. They don’t make much noise, they are kind of big thieves out in the wild. I for one have never heard even a squeak from these little creatures but I probably just haven’t noticed it as it’s something I hear everyday. It is actually known that squirrels steal between each other, especially around early spring when most of their resources have been depleted from last autumn. These rodents sit back while they observe others to see where they hide their nuts (Bouchard). 

So we know how squirrels look and act, but what is their role in their environment?  Well we know that they mostly live in forests but you and I have probably found them just running around in the middle of the street. That is because they were brought to parks like Central Park back in the late 1800s to early 1900s. We did this in order to make the atmosphere of these parks more “entertaining”. Well many of these squirrels actually helped many of our forests diversify with the plant life. These rodents can be called gardeners as they are responsible for planting many seeds that would eventually grow into trees or other types of plant life. That is due to them always hiding their food by digging the earth. Even though they find a lot of their food back or it gets stolen, much of it goes unfound which means they basically planted these seeds (Grenrock).

The squirrel is such a common animal we see that we don’t even think of what it does or how it even got here. Much of this information I just found out when doing research on this rodent. It’s honestly very amazing to me how everyone has some kind of role towards their environment, no matter their size.

Self-Reflection