University of Kansas - Jayhawker Yearbook (Lawrence, KS)

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SQUIRREL WATCH by Beth Behrens John Koprowski, Lawrence graduate student, observes squirrels with binoculars. The grid map has the location of every tree in the glen and each squirrel ' s nest. His eyes darted across the grove, spot- ting the movement in the shadows of the trees. He lifted the binoculars to his face almost unconsciously, as if they were an extension of his arm. That one is a juvenile, he said, nod- ding at the squirrel with white patches of fur on its sides, darting across the grass. The markings help me to tell them apart. John Koprowski is a graduate student working on his doctorate in biology. He spends an average of 15 hours a week during the academic year in Marvin Grove, the area between Strong Hall and Spencer Museum of Art, where the squir- rels live, eat, play and fight to survive. The winter of 1988-89 would not be as easy as in winters past, primarily because of the drought the summer before. Jim Mathes, assistant director of land- scape at KU, said that more animals would die on the roadsides in winter 1988- 89 than in the past. The animals are going to run out of food and are going to have to start looking outside their normal areas. Koprowski said the reason for scarcity of nuts was actually two-fold: a surplus crop in spring 1988 as well as the compli- cations of the drought. The trees in Mar- vin Grove produced a bumper crop, leav- ing more than enough nuts to feed the wildlife population of the grove. Re- searchers predicted a smaller crop for fall 1988, and the drought reduced the har- vest even more severely than predicted. I don ' t think the drought is really going to affect survival as much as it will the reproduction process, Koprowski said. The juveniles are the ones prone to the drought. Survival in the grove is 85 to 90 per- cent. Reproduction is the real variable, he said. Population of the squirrels in the grove more than doubled in spring 1988 because of the plentiful supply of nuts. Squirrels normally have two mating seasons: one in the spring and one in the 24

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Security Guards In 1987, Mike Killeen and Buck Taylor founded Guardian Security, a security service that caters to the needs of social chairmen. Their original idea was that they would be party planners, to eliminate the need for social chairmen, but it quickly transformed into a securi- ty service offering unobtrusive risk management for parties. Killeen and Taylor tailor their services to the hosts ' wishes. They will check identification, patrol parking lots and act as bouncers. They have worked primarily for sorority parties so far. Killeen is a St. Louis senior, studying architecture. Taylor is a Chicago junior, studying public relations in the school of journalism. This is not the first entrepren- uerial endeavor for them; previously each sold T-shirts independently. Guardian Security takes about 15 to 20 hours of their time each week. In an average month they work three parties. Their initial investment was approxi- mately $100, spent on uniforms and flyers. Considering Guardian ' s meager beginning, we have come a long way and captured a sizeable portion of the market, Killeen said. Currently, they have two employ- ees and are considering adding an advertising manager. Also, they are considering expanding their service to both Ottawa University and Baker University. After we graduate, I would like to see the idea continue, captained by someone who is dedicated to the company ' s original philosophy, Taylor said. Cheryl Crone Mike Killeen and Buck Taylor, founders of Guardian Security 23

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young grey squirrel munches on a nut in Watlcins glen. Koprowski catches the squirrels and marks them for easy identification. C OCOR. tM adtixb I vinter. Almost all of the adult females eproduced in winter 1987-88, Koprowski aid, but only two out of 18 females in the ;rove reproduced in spring or summer :9 88. Koprowski predicted that none of the emales would reproduce in the next mat- ng season because of the hard times they vould have to face in the winter. Koprowski bases his study on those quirrels he has successfully been able to rap and mark. He tries to catch the ' ounger ones during the warmer season. fter trapping them, he inserts an ear tag md shaves certain parts of their bodies. These shaved areas will grow back white. The unpigmented fur is a permanent narking, so once Koprowski catches one, t is not necessary for him to catch it igain. On some of them, I have used a black iir dye, Koprowski said. But once they nolt, it gets kind of difficult to identify :hem. That ' s why I started shaving Jiem. Kenneth Armitage, professor of biolo- gical systems and ecology, said that Ko- Drowski ' s marking method has allowed lim to follow individual squirrels over several generations and discover new facts ibout the tree squirrel ' s social behavior. Armitage is the originator of the mod- si Koprowski is testing. The model is Dased on the social behavior of several different species of squirrels. The aspect Koprowski is testing, the social behavior of tree squirrels, has been disputed over the last few years. Many scientists were under the impression that tree squirrels were hostile and territorial, but Koprowski has uncovered a complex and extremely social behavior among tree squirrels. Koprowski has really learned how the social system of the tree squirrels works. Other people who have tried to find things out about them didn ' t look long enough, they didn ' t mark them and had no way of telling the age or the relation- ship of the squirrels. Armitage also said that Koprowski had had some difficulty with people who didn ' t understand the nature of his re- search. People think I am really inhumane and I am mangling the squirrels, but I care more about them than probably any- one will know, Koprowski said. I am really glad to see that people are con- cerned about the wildlife, but what I do is not bad for the squirrels. Koprowski prides himself on keeping a professional view of his research by dis- tancing himself from the emotional aspect of getting to know the different squirrels and their relationships withing their com- munity, but it ' s not always easy. I sometimes find myself kind of root- ing for the underdog. I try not to name them, but the ones that are king of odd - like the ones without tails - they ' re Stubb One and Stubb Two. One of Koprowski ' s most pressing con- cerns is that people try to help the squir- rels by putting food out for them. That is only a temporary method of solving the problem. It gives them an artificial high. If people constantly feed the squirrels they will tend to rely on the extra food, Koproski said. When that food supply is cut off, more will die than if the situation was left up to mother nature. They have been surviving for millions of years, and by now they are probably pretty good at it, Koprowski said. They don ' t really need much help. Koprowski notes the location and activity of the squirreb in his study. 25