Squirrel population thinned by on-campus obstacles

Though the campus' thousands of squirrels enjoy the grounds' acorns and food throwaways, these unofficial mascots of the University face many unfortunate, fatal hazards.

Bicycles, cars, and golf carts whizzing by, hawks circling above and massive trees from which to fall all provide for a grim responsibility of University groundskeepers: disposing of squirrel remains.

Hundreds die on campus every year.

"My guess is somewhere around twice a week," Grounds Manager Jim Consolloy said of the frequency with which his staff finds a deceased squirrel. "There's such heavy pressure from all the woodlands around here that the minute you lose a squirrel here or there, it seems like there's two more that come back on campus."

Squirrels have their numbers thinned by predators from above.

There's a family of Redtailed hawks that has mated on campus in the last few years, ecology and evolutionary biology professor Henry Horn said. "They can do a job on the squirrels as well."

Consolloy and his crew — some of whom are assigned to animal control — are charged with the task of cleaning up squirrel remains. It's one of the maintenance department's many responsibilities on campus ranging from shoveling snow to planting flowers in Prospect Garden.

There's little ceremony to the disposal. They are simply scooped up and taken to the compost pile on the far side of Lake Carnegie.

According to the public health department, Consolloy explained, they do not carry rabies, which allows maintenance to dispose of the squirrels along with the rest of the University's waste.

"We basically can either add them to our landfill, the vegetative waste dump on the other side of Lake Carnegie by the playing fields where they get composted, or other animals will feed on them," he said.

Consolloy has been at the University 14 years and has seen his share of squirrel accidents.

"A lot of them will run out into the road. Most of the time it's an accidental death and they'll fall because they'll miss a branch and land on the pavement. I've seen a number of them fall out of trees and some of them don't recoup, particularly the young will fall out of the nest and we'll find them dead and stunned."

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The official squirrel population is the "eastern gray squirrel" — the Latin name, sciurus carolinensis — dominates the campus and has piqued the curiosity of University students and professors alike.

Leila Zubeida Hadj-Chikh, a graduate student who recently received her Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology, conducted an experiment on squirrel behavior and their foraging patterns. Hadj-Chikh tagged 47 squirrels and observed whether they stole acorns from each other. The study lasted for six years; those squirrels are no longer around for research purposes.