haake@osprey.cvs.rochester.edu (Bill Haake) (05/25/90)
In article <6981@hall.cray.com> gbt@hall.cray.com (Greg Titus) writes: >In article <9005211940.AA16520@gemini.arc.nasa.gov> greer%utdssa.dnet%utadnx@utspan.span.nasa.gov writes: >>... Estimates of >>the Mt. Graham red squirrel population range from 50 to 150 individuals. >> [quite a bit deleted] >>... Since the >>squirrels' habitat spans about 10,000 acres, ... > >I have a hard time reconciling these numbers. If we assume >100 squirrels for the population, then we've got a population >density of 0.01 squirrel/acre. This is way too low for a >small rodent -- I would expect something in the range 1 to 10 >squirrels/acre, or 100 to 1000 times as great a density. >Squirrels just don't range very far. At 0.01 squirrel/acre, >they couldn't even breed. > >I think either their range must be smaller or their population >must be larger. > >greg >-------------------------------------------------------------- >Greg Titus (gbt@zia.cray.com) Ada Project >Cray Research, Inc. Santa Fe, NM >Opinions expressed herein (such as they are) are purely my own. >Cray Research, Inc. is not in the squirrel business. One problem with Greg's analysis is that the squirrels may not be distributed uniformly throughout the 10000 acres. There may be only a few locations in the area where the squirrels are concentrated in sufficient numbers to enable them to find mates. I've cross-posted this to sci.bio and directed followups there in the hope that a squirrel biologist somewhere might provide some better answers to this critical issue :-). Bill f o d d e r Bill Haake haake@cvs.rochester.edu (128.151.80.13) University of Rochester (716) 275-8680