The Squirrel Project: Problem Solving Abilities of Squirrels

New Post

2007-09-13T16:20:00.000-04:00

This is my new post!!!!

Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

New video 2

2006-10-23T10:24:00.000-04:00

Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

NEW VIDEO!!!!

2006-10-17T12:46:00.000-04:00

Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

how squirrels lean!

2006-06-05T17:13:00.000-04:00

Check this out!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4119462746214547887&q=squirrel

Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

The battle is neverending with squirrels, fire ants

2006-06-02T16:10:00.000-04:00

When we lived in California, squirrels were everywhere. They particularly loved the food in our bird feeders and were constantly seen there nibbling away quite comfortably.

We hung them a distance from our deck, but the little rascals simply jumped from our roof with unerring accuracy, never missing the bird feeders.

We tried every remedy offered by pet shops but nothing seemed to work. We were fast losing the pleasant sounds of our local bird population.

In fact, there was one in particular that had two babies and had the gall to bring them over to our deck to babysit while she terrorized the neighbors.

We learned that this was not simply our problem but that it existed statewide. There was even some talk of bringing in the National Guard. We felt this was a job for homeland security; however, our pleas fell on deaf ears and the squirrels organized into neighborhood cells to combat any threat to their well being.

Our neighborhood cell met regularly on our rooftop but we could never understand what sort of outrage was next on their list, so we did what we had to do.

We moved to South Carolina, and seem to be squirrel free. Perhaps that is due to the many dogs and cats patrolling our area.

But now we have been introduced to another annoyance - fire ants, a new pestilence for us and one that is also quite painful.

My wife, Teddy, is an enthusiastic gardener, but every time she starts to plant a new bed of flowers the little buggers say no and she is made painfully aware of their presence.

They seem to have an uncanny ability to nest wherever you feel that flowers should be growing.

We have used every fire ant killer available and have successfully destroyed some of their nests, but they simply move to a new location and replenish their population.

At this point, we are convinced that they, much like the squirrels of California, are simply indestructible and we may be forced to once again give up and move to the arctic circle, where we understand there are no squirrels or fire ants.
Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

Jojo

2006-06-01T11:56:00.000-04:00

Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

2006-06-01T11:55:00.000-04:00

Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

Dead squirrel in San Luis Obispo County tests positive for plague

2006-06-01T11:54:00.000-04:00

MORRO BAY, Calif. Health officials in San Luis Obispo County say people heading outdoors should stay away from rodents, after a dead squirrel found in Morro Bay tested positive for plague.

Dr. Gregory Thomas, with the county's health department, says visitors to campgrounds, parks and other wilderness areas should remain cautious.
The plague is transmitted to rodents by fleas.
Thomas says that since 1970 there have been 39 confirmed cases of plague in people in California.
If contracted by humans, the disease can be deadly.

Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

Voracious grey squirrel 'is greatest threat to songbirds'

2006-06-01T11:10:00.000-04:00

he grey squirrel and the domestic cat are preventing the recovery of Britain's songbirds, which were devastated by intensive farming and the removal of hedges in the post-war years, says a new report.

The report says that in areas of high grey squirrel density, 93 per cent of small bird nests are raided
Of the two introduced predators, the grey squirrel kills more young songbirds than the cat.

The findings of the report, commissioned by the charity, SongBird Survival, are likely to challenge the received wisdom about the decline in songbird populations since the 1950s and what has prevented many from recovering over the past 15 years when farmers have been using fewer chemicals and participating in green farming schemes.

The author of the report, Prof Roy Brown, of Birkbeck, University of London, estimates that overall some 180 million adult songbirds, or their eggs and young are killed by mammals every year - chiefly squirrels, cats and rats.

That is out of an estimated natural population of 260 million of the main 15 songbird species - blackbird, song thrush, blue tit, great tit, robin, skylark, meadow pipit, wren, dunnock, whitethroat, greenfinch, chaffinch, yellowhammer, reed bunting and corn bunting.

The report says that in areas of high grey squirrel density, 93 per cent of small bird nests are raided. Where this is combined with sparrow hawk activity, it can result in 100 per cent breeding failure and a loss of 85 per cent of adult songbirds.

Prof Brown, who reviewed a wealth of information on the causes of songbird deaths said yesterday: "It looks as if 60 per cent of all breeding activity is being knocked out by predation.

"I would say the problem is now predation - on a par with other factors that are still there."

Prof Brown accepts the results of the many research projects that have shown that the principle reason for the decline in the farmland birds over the past 40 years was agricultural intensification and the removal of hedges.

Yet he believes that it is wrong to blame the failure of songbirds to recover over the past 10-15 years exclusively on agriculture, at a time when green farming schemes and lower pesticide applications have done much to improve the food available for songbirds. He wants predation, by both mammals and birds such as sparrowhawks and kestrels, to be studied as a possible explanation.

He said: "If you've got somebody who is sick, who is diagnosed as having cancer, diabetes and a mild form of anaemia, you've got to deal with the cancer first, but if you don't deal with the other two the patient won't get better."

Prof Brown said the grey squirrel has adapted to the British environment and there is a very wide range of food it will take compared with the vegetarian red squirrel.

He said: "I've raised some questions which need to be looked at much more closely. If predators are having as bad an effect as that, then the answer is to look at doing something more systematic to restore the balance, certainly with mammals and possibly with birds of prey."

His study is likely to re-focus attention on the Government's abandonment of widespread programmes for controlling the North American grey squirrel, which has pushed the native red squirrel into extinction across most of mainland England.

Grahame Madge, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said: "Grey squirrel predation is something we at the RSPB - and the British Trust for Ornithology, English Nature and the Forestry Commission - are beginning to think is a problem.

"We know the problems for some birds - such as the corn bunting, yellowhammer and grey partridge is very specific to do with agricultural change and pesticides.

''But for hawfinch and a number of other species, the grey squirrel is one factor that has been identified as part of the problem.''

Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

Man Accused Of Scalding Trapped Squirrel To Death

2006-06-01T11:08:00.000-04:00

(AP) CRYSTAL LAKE, Ill. A 75-year-old Crystal Lake man is accused of killing a gray squirrel he trapped in a cage by pouring scalding hot water on the animal.

John Grivas is charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty and unlawfully trapping a squirrel. He faces up to a year in jail and a fine up to $2,500.

Grivas denies scalding the caged squirrel, saying he shook it. He says he didn't know he needed a permit to trap the animal.

Illinois Department of Natural Resources spokesman Chris McCloud says conservation officers found evidence the squirrel had been scalded after a neighbor called police to report the incident.

The neighbor alleged Grivas used a teapot to pour steaming water on the animal multiple times as it died in the cage.

Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

2006-06-01T11:03:00.000-04:00

Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

SNOW what?

2005-12-21T18:01:00.000-05:00

I love this time of year!

Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

jojo

2005-06-27T16:56:00.000-04:00

Jojo Update

Jojo can now be called by name. Tom is still timid.

Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

2005-06-25T17:55:00.000-04:00

My new squirrel post card I am selling. $2.50 USD

Man with the Hand

2005-06-20T16:12:00.000-04:00

Well to answer all the critics out there who find it necessary to speculate on the tainted mental status of the “man with the hand” in the last squirrel video, he is not a pervert. There are no sexual “pole” innuendos except for the blatant “bird reference”. Furthermore, I have asked several of my colleagues at lunch about the comments and in their professional option they think the person is a female, has deep seeded sexual confusion and may suffer from formicophilia is a Gomphipothic or performs Genuphallation. They also hypothesize that the person drives a small car, which I found to be odd, but they showed me the statistics. I asked what type of therapy one should get for her/his condition, but the pizza came and we started to eat. Sorry.

Squirrel part 2
Some have asked if there will be a Squirrel part 2? Is Thom really dead? You will have to wait and see to find out…but I’m sorry it won’t be pretty. I am just waiting for some original music.

(See also http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/2005/06/new-video-for-you-to-watch.html)

Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

Happy Father's Day

2005-06-19T12:48:00.000-04:00

Happy Father's Day

to all of the Men who may or may not

know that they are Fathers

Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

Manebito

2005-06-19T12:02:00.000-04:00

Random side note
I was just at a birthday / father’s day / going away / congratulations / we’ll see party, and I got my friend a gift. It was the “Eye Toy” for the PS2 with a game called Antigravity. If any of you remember game called “TrickStyle“ http://www.dreamcastgameworld.com/game.php/id/572/for the Dreamcast from Sega, then you’ll know what Antigravity looks like. If you don’t, then think of any snowboarding / racing / trick making game…set in the future but you don’t use a snowboard and you don’t ride on snow. The Eye Toy is not a “new thing” that I discovered, but the first set of games it cam with sucked – well they were fun for about 15 minutes – so nobody said you “have to get it”. The Eye Toy is a crappy little camera but the image recognition software is pretty “wow’able”. It tracks your head and hands to control the game.

Anyway for this game you have to move allot especially for beginners. I’m 200 pounds, 6 feet tall, and pretty coordinated guy – but throwing my head/ arms / body around to make this jet boarder fly and do kick flips for 15 minutes was tough after the 4th and 5th race. It’s a long track but it is a very fun workout!!!!

Manebito http://www.n-sider.com/features/features-082804-nintendorevolutionfaq04.gif

Now I don’t own a PS2. I have gamecube and XBOX neither of which has an eye toy like controller so I might have to shell out 149.00 for the PS2 then 49.99 for the game – that is still cheaper then a gym membership. Looking on-line I see Nintendo "may" come out with Manebito Can I wait for the Manebito? Or wait for the PS3? Or next XBOX or gamecube???

Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

Squirrelman

2005-06-18T08:22:00.000-04:00

You see that batman!!!!
Video to come

Batman Begins

2005-06-18T07:58:00.000-04:00

With all this hype over the new film Batman Begins I must point out that flying squirrels and bats are not the same animal, cousins, or even relatives. Bats can’t even fly like flying squirrels. Bats are somewhat retarded. Well unintelligent would be better description of a bat. Why would you use sonar to navigate? Imaging diving your car making clicking and chirping noises? How would you listen to the radio? Squirrels can drive an listen to the radio.…

Batman Begins may be a great film but if there were a “flying squirrels man” surely he would kick Batman’s ass. There’s not contest. Batman can’t see!!!! People ask me Dr. Marmen so why didn’t they make a Squirrel man comic book? It’s because they are scared, too much power I say – they have no kryptonite except the sound of traffic. They seen to be drawn to that.

The cast looks good

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christian Bale.... Bruce Wayne/Batman
Michael Caine.... Alfred
Liam Neeson.... Ducard
Katie Holmes.... Joey Potter

Links
http://www.eagames.com/official/batman/batmanbegins/us/home.jsp
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372784/
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/batman_begins/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/batman_begins/

Success

2005-06-18T05:28:00.000-04:00

Day 18 - 5:13 AM
Success!!!!

I have gained the squirrels’ trust. I can now make the chish-tish sound (as noted in my first book) to notify them when food will be provided. The squirrels are allowing me to fully train them. This new training will be “consequence training”; it consists of the squirrels pulling small balls attached to stings. If they pull the balls in the correct order they will get and enormous amount of food. If they don’t, then the platform that they are standing on will project them 22-27 feet in the air (tested with a 5 pound sand bag). The device that is used to launch them is attached to a floating arm. The reason for the floating arm is that when the platform is trigger based on the incorrect solution of ball pulling is so the platform will spin the squirrel to disorientate it when in flight.

This will teach the squirrel not to do that. When they fall and hit the ground a small bell will ring. The bell sound will be used in later experiments.

Video and Images to come.

Squirrel Paté

2005-06-16T16:46:00.000-04:00

Squirrel paté dished by protestsBy Nick Britten(Filed: 09/06/2005)
A restaurant selling squirrel terrine has been forced to withdraw it after death threats from animal rights activists.

height="166">
Off the menu: Sciurus carolinensis
Protesters threatened to firebomb the Hadley Bowling Green Inn in Droitwich, Worcs, and to smash up the staff's cars over the £7.95 paté starter.
A female housekeeper was told: "I'm glad I don't work here because I wouldn't want to die in the fire."
After the dish was featured on local television the restaurant received about 25 threatening telephone calls and a string of malicious e-mails.

Virus 'threatening red squirrels'

2005-06-16T16:42:00.000-04:00

A virus is placing Scotland's dwindling red squirrel population under threat, conservationists have warned. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4093856.stm

Max

http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

Video Clips from Daylight Robbery II

2005-06-16T16:20:00.000-04:00

Follow this link http://www.squirrels.org/t_video.html

These video clips are from the film, Daylight Robbery + Daylight Robbery II. Which aired in the U.S. on the Discovery Channel on November 26, 1995. It was produced by the B.B.C. Worldwide Limited in 1995. This is the second part of the BBC TV's program presented by Dr. Jessica Holm.

http://www.squirrels.org/

Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com

Philippine Battle Tree YoYo

2005-06-16T11:28:00.000-04:00

Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

Yo-yo

2005-06-16T11:20:00.000-04:00

Historical records indicate that 16th century hunters in the Philippines hid up in trees and used sharpened rocks tied to a long cord, up to 20 feet in length, to flinging at tree squirrels. The weapon could be pulled up and thrown back down for multiple attempts at the tree squirrels and thus the yo-yo was born.

The word yo-yo is a “Tagalog” word, the native language of the Philippines, and means 'come back.'

People in the United States started playing with the British bandalore or yo-yo in the 1860s.

Philippines

2005-06-16T11:00:00.000-04:00

Food for thought
The Philippine Islands became a Spanish colony during the 16th century; they were ceded to the US in 1898 following the Spanish-American War. In 1935 the Philippines became a self-governing commonwealth. Manuel QUEZON was elected President and was tasked with preparing the country for independence after a 10-year transition. In 1942 the islands fell under Japanese occupation during WWII, and US forces and Filipinos fought together during 1944-45 to regain control. At this time “tree squirrel” was named the Philippine Islands’ national food.

Squirrel Trolling

2005-06-16T07:59:00.000-04:00

Trolling is divided into two parts: Hanging and R/C’ing

Hanging and R/C’ing is practiced with a shell bait; a wallnut for the common grey or brown squirrels; chestnuts for flying and reds. The best general bait for all sorts of trolling is the common peanut.

The R/C (remote control) used should be a 4x4 truck, with good tires, and prepared with trolling line (neon yellow).

The baits must be fresh, strong and lively, and placed on the line with as little injury to them as possible – DO NOT CRACK THE SHELL. Allow the bait to roll, here and there, generally over short grass, but in deep patches, deeper, drawing it up gently jumping them now and then, letting it pause again and guiding it to the best looking spots of the locality. Or set the remote by placing a book on top of it so you can walk away and drink beers.

The R/C’s merit lies in allowing the troller to drive quickly, before the persnickety Squirrel suspecting something wrong, has time to slip the bait from his grip. The truck used must be short and stiff 2.3MHz; Tyco being the best.

Hanging, well you just tie the nut to a clothesline or horizontal pole with some string. Hang it off the ground about 2-4 feet. Then wait. The squirrels will have to jump up to grab the nuts.

At least the other way, you can drive a R/C truck.

-Max

http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

Dream a Little Dream

2005-06-15T22:32:00.000-04:00

Have you ever seen a squirrel sleep standing up? This idea was sent in by none other than Jeremy Morison of Springfield Tennessee. When hawks are in the area, Jeremy likes to feed them a nice fresh meal. He noticed my post and let me in on one of his feeding secrets. He gives the squirrels a bit of allergy medication to put them to sleep. In his e-mail he described the step that I have recreated in these pictures. I was very easy to do. This to me was so alarming that I immediately set a plan to teach my squirrels how to avoid the color “pink” no matter how tasty the nut or food looks. I have been making much progress. Jojo knows what not to eat. The others in group 003 need a bit more time (they still lick the pills)

Thanks Jeremy for the tip! You are a sick sick man!

2005-06-15T22:01:00.000-04:00

Press

2005-06-15T21:59:00.000-04:00

Poke

2005-06-15T21:58:00.001-04:00

Meds

2005-06-15T21:58:00.000-04:00

Nuts

2005-06-15T21:54:00.000-04:00

Toothpick

Correction

2005-06-15T21:36:00.000-04:00

The New Jojo video for you to watch! is a Real Movie file (.ram) and should have not been shown in a windows media player. I have made a new screen cap.

-Max

More Movies

2005-06-14T11:32:00.000-04:00

If you want to see more Jo Jo films.
NEW - Squirrel [REAL]
Furry Theives IV [REAL]
Le Squirrel [Windows]

New video for you to watch!

2005-06-13T18:01:00.000-04:00

New video for you to watch!

NEW Squirrel Video

2005-06-13T17:37:00.000-04:00

The new Jojo movie has been uploaded.

To Watch Click here

Let me know what you think. Other movie links can be found on the home page.
-Max

Video is Rated R
strong language and graphic violence

Squirrel Trance

2005-06-09T14:26:00.000-04:00

My new findings are amazing! Squirrels who feed on “peanuts in the shell” MUST take said peanut into seclusion, a place where they feel safe to crack the shell. If one ties some connection device to some sort of anchor to said peanut, the squirrel will to do anything to get the food. Biting thought the connection (string) or anchor material is the squirrel’s instinct and most effective method of getting a nut.

Squirrels go onto a trance when they grab on to the peanut making them brave. A traced brave Squirrel takes on the same character of a great white shark. MUST FEED. Even spraying them with water from a squirt bottle does not break the trance.

Here is what you need:
Area where squirrels are located
Peanut butter
Peanuts in the shell
Bright colored sting (strong)
0.5-pound weight that you can tie a string to
Anchor point A (steak, stick, or wrist)
Optional Anchor point B (steak, stick, or wrist)

Experiment timeline: 5 days
For the best results I have found 5 days to work the best.

Diagram
[Anchor A] [String] [Nut] [String] [Weight][Anchor B]
(I will have photos soon)

What to do:

Day One
Take a length of string and place it slightly balled up in the area where squirrels are located.
Take a peanut and put a small amount of peanut butter on the shell. (not to much)
Place buttered peanuts on the ground on top of the string. (not tied)
Wait.

Day Two
Repeat day one

Day Three
Repeat day one just use more food a lot more but tie the peanuts to the string.
See where the string goes

Day Four
No food
No string

Day Five
Tie one peanut to the sting and place in the area
Hold on to the other side of the string
Wait
When a squirrel grabs the nut make a little noise for it to run.
Lightly tug on the string to free the nut form the squirrels grasp
Repeat

With a second anchor you can tie the other end of the sting to a high branch so you can make the nut shoot up into the air and make the squirrel jump.

I have found other scientists having success with this experiment too. (images from http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~yaz/en/squirrel_fishing.html great place to visit!!!)
This proves that squirrel fishing can and does happen.

Video to come!

Hawk Feeder

2005-05-19T07:07:00.000-04:00

I am surprised that it was this early in the season that hawks would take my subjects. I lost 14 so far and now I have to deter the squirrels from the test site until I can put up mist nets or just let my colleague Chase Larson, who works with Hawk / Bird behavior, take over my section. This is very uncomforting that again I have to track the methods of deterrents versus the natural behavior of squirrels. One good aspect that came about was that I was approached by a bird lover / marketing guru who would like to take my “obstacles” and package them as “Hawk feeders” because the price of Hawk food was on the upswing but my super squirrel food was holding steady.

JoJo jr

2005-05-10T23:05:00.000-04:00

Thats right 1 pounds 3 ounces!!! Congrats Jojo.

R.I.P

2005-05-08T22:10:00.000-04:00

R/C truck bunny R.I.P was destroyed by 17 squirrels – when rodent pheromones were placed it its left side cabin (back paw) There was no stopping them.

Video to come.

Bunny Buggy Update

2005-04-27T22:10:00.000-04:00

Make sure you get a powerful RC car. This one pictured was $39 USD works great indoors but doesn’t have the power to go over medium grass. So I built a small idiotic wooden track for it to ride on which defeats the whole idea.

“Bunny Buggy”

2005-04-26T22:12:00.000-04:00

Hello, today I want to show you my current project the “Bunny Buggy”.
It is very simple, all you need is:
1 Stuffed bunny plush toy (squirrel if your toy store carries it)
1 RC Truck - make sure it has “Dubs” with large rims (spinners if in stock)
1 Remote Control
1 Sharpe Knife
1 Large Bowl (not shown)

Cut open the bunny. Wait! Just don’t plunge your knife into the thing, find a seam and work your way around.
Dump out beans, sand, cotton or whatever filler is in the thing into the bowl. I didn’t and I was sorry.
Wrap the fabric over the chassis (Think before you wrap it, are you covering a battery enclosure that you may have to get back into? or a switch?) make sure that the Dubs are in full display. Squirrels love shinny Dubs.

To glue or not to glue? I say not to glue the bunny. It will get really messed up in like a few hours. Some people use Velcro but they are just showing off.

Place your new bunny buggy next to your obstacle – and wait.

Depending on the ferocity of your squirrels the bunny buggy will be a foe or a foe (that called the squirrel’s mother fat)

All types of fun can be had with this tool. Attach super food and see what happens!!!

2005-04-26T21:58:00.000-04:00

Bunny

2005-04-26T21:57:00.000-04:00

Blade

2005-04-26T21:56:00.000-04:00

Dub

2005-04-26T21:54:00.000-04:00

Remote

2005-04-26T21:52:00.000-04:00

Ride

The Furry Theives IV - Sneek Peek!

2005-04-23T15:00:00.000-04:00

I have found and uploaded a new jojo video - AKA the star of "The Furry Theives II - IV"

If you want to stream it click here -> Streaming Video - jojo.ram

If you want to download it click here -> Downloadable Video - jojo.rm

-Max

2005-04-23T14:29:00.000-04:00

The Bending Pole

Super Fun Lunch - Movie

2005-04-22T22:20:00.000-04:00

Click here -> le Squirrel the Movie
Windows Media Audio/Video file - 1.22 MB

This one is a mind blower!!!

Super Fun Lunch

2005-04-22T21:03:00.000-04:00

At the clinic/treatment center that I work at I host something called the “Super Fun Lunch”. The idea is simple; coworkers bring in food to share with others for lunch – that’s it. Because we have such a diverse staff, the types of food we eat range from excellent peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to Indian curries - people also buy stuff to bring in which is fine (this one guy always buys spicy Thai fried rice - Me)

Food is really not the point, it just the vehicle to help the newer people get together with the older people and have a “recess” from work. F, if lawyers can have a recess so should doctors, nurses, janitors, kitchen staff, maintenance, orderlies, and day care teachers (well they do have recess) but my point is physiologically you need a mental break so one can develop a more positive outlook on their work.

The lunch was created for a purely selfish reason. Late last year I was battling a strange squirrel related illness. There was a woman, who was the wife of a co-worker (later she joined the staff) who I was introduced to when I was in the hospital. She brought me yellow flowers (I still have some of dried). I thought it was the worst first impression I could give to someone. She had no idea who this guy was and yet she came to visit me and give me flowers – I would have stayed home if I was her.

When I came back to work she was temporally helping us out with a research project and I wanted to in some way pay her back…for causing her some awkwardness and perhaps sadness when she met me that day. So I create the Super Fun Lunch. The “Super Fun Lunch” name was actually joke when I started it, but after the first few lunches, people started to refer to the event by that name.

As time went on I noticed some strange observations, some people would:

Not bring in food
Get mad when people did not bring in food
Have a good time
Bring food but then not eat with the rest us
Bring food just for them
Feel ready to get back to the problem that they were working on
Judge what other people brought in
Have some internal ego struggle of who would eat all of “my” food first
Get upset when all of their food was not eaten
Know each others name for the first time
Get upset when all of their food was eaten before they could have any
Go overboard with trying to be gourmet
Feel guilty if they did not bring in anything
Share stuff that obviously was not really meant to be shared
Forget when the event was even though they were reminded by phone, email and face to
face the day before
The people that were at the Super Fun Lunch were seen as a “group”
Mock the event yet deep down felt a sense of jealousy that they were not a part of the “group”

The Baby

2005-04-22T20:30:00.000-04:00

My wife and I play a game where you try to put this little plactic baby in strange places.

Standard Stand

2005-04-21T07:31:00.000-04:00

Here is an illustration of a standard stand.
From bottom to top:

PVC Pole
Motion Sensor (not attached to the metal screw collar)
Speed Rail attachment (not markedby arrow)
Poly Carb Baffle
Pine Block
Super Food (Mentioned in my books)

Red Birds

2005-04-21T07:07:00.000-04:00

I have proven (as seen in my 2nd book) that squirrels intelligently use birds as “indicators” for food sources. I have placed small deflated red balloons (do not use yellow see post “who are they?”) to attract these rare red birds I believe they are called “red birds”

Note: They also recognize the shapes of bird feeders – unfortunately not cars

Night Vision

2005-04-21T03:02:00.000-04:00

Simple ATN PS14-XR5 Night Vision Monocular attached to a motion detector and a Kodak throw away 33mm camera with a film advance and shutter trigger I build from a remote control car.

A Long Way for a Short Distance

2005-04-21T02:05:00.000-04:00

For this squirrel to complete the obstacle it had to correctly press several levers in order for the wood frame to drop then jump 12 feet.

S:401935

2005-04-21T00:01:00.000-04:00

My lab assistant insists on naming my subjects. 401935 is named Lala.

Glue?

2005-04-20T23:52:00.000-04:00

It’s not glue. Actually it is cooking spray – I am testing the effectiveness of different brands. As I suspected the generic “store brand” cooking spray works the best on both squirrel poles and eggs.

2005-04-19T02:22:00.000-04:00

For the health of my subjects, I pump in a small amount of oxygen into the baffles you see in the images. This allows the squirrel to perform at peek performance. In the wild, there is not such thing as a polycarbonate baffle. Some test subjects would stay in the baffle for hours thus depriving themselves of air. I have also placed thin radio antennas/sensors in common clothes line to inform me of any CO2 build up. I have not lost another squirrel to suffocation for 322 days now.

2005-04-18T07:10:00.000-04:00

2005-0002a Problem Finish

2005-04-18T06:30:00.000-04:00

2005-0002a Problem Start

2005-0002a Data Entry

2005-04-17T20:42:00.000-04:00

4/17/04 7:13 PM
6 subject approach obstacle zone
Intervals of 2 minutes
Length of stay 16 minutes
Ground penetration 5 centimeters
4 Poles touched
No plates activated
Food: assorted mix
Fragrance injection “Cinnamon 0992”
Sound high triangle

2005-0002b
Ramp added to left drop zone (angle N/A texture N/A)
Cross pole added to base (angle 32 texture bamboo)

Data entered by Jill C.

Experiment 2005-0002a

2005-04-17T20:34:00.000-04:00

Before I receive any negative e-mails, like last year, I must tell you that experiments 2005-0001 - 2005-0005 will not have any diagrams, material lists, images, or instructions. These are the fearless five. I gather my baseline data with these experiments to build a foundation that I can build my grand assumption. With last years theory I proved that squirrels do not like eat within a fire ring they would rather work to fill, aim and spray several squirt guns with the correct liquid. Several of the liquids would cause the fire to spread.

0002 needed to be modified because the current squirrel batch is drastically less intelligent than previous years. Several alternate solutions were provides and will be taken away one by one to see if this is merely just a hiccup of shyness on the part of the animals. Notes will follow.

Experiment Names

2005-04-17T20:30:00.000-04:00

I keep experiment names in this simple format:
[The current year] - [number between 0001-9999][optional letter a-z]
For example 2005-0016 would be experiment 16 of this year. If I modify the experiment in any way it gets a letter 2005-0016a the next completely different experiment would be 2005-0017 and so on. Last year I was up to 2004-0072j.

Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/

Sour but Sweet

2005-04-17T17:00:00.000-04:00

Even though the class was 6 people lighter it never got any better. Basically I weeded out the naiveté of the bunch. I started to show my documentary footage of my Obstacle Courses. A woman in the back said, “please stop the DVD it is making me sick”. I turned on the lights and asked if it was because the screen was flashing between scenes (I tend to use “white flashes” between cuts if I am removing uninteresting or lengthy footage) or if the projector refresh rate needed to be adjusted (Some people are photosensitive. For them, flashing lights or flickering images can trigger seizures or create patterns on the electroencephalogram (EEG) that are typical of epilepsy).

She said, “No, it’s making me sick that you are doing that to animals”. At that point I lost it. I said, “Why did you come?!?! The class was called squirrels and how they conquer obstacles”. She replied, “you are exploiting them, you are no better than beekeepers”. Shaking my head, I took the DVD out from my player and started packing up. Then I asked, “how do they exploit them?” The young women said, “The honey that bees make is for their own purposes. When we remove honey from the hive, we take something that is not rightfully ours. Plus to get it, beekeepers must remove bees from their homes. We cannot avoid squashing, or otherwise killing some of the bees. The vegan position on honey is definitive” I asked, “you’re a vegan?” She continued, “Yes, Yes, I am, and additionally Honey was prohibited for use by vegans according to the 1944 manifesto of the British Vegan Society, a position consistent with the requirement for full membership in the American Vegan Society since its inception in 1960.” With my hands hold my head I said, “You guys have a manifesto, actually I don’t care... it’s time for lunch.”

** After Lunch **

Miss Thing walks in eating Chicken McNuggets (ironic since we are at a bird enthusiast gathering) I say, “Hey?! Look what you’re eating!!!” She says extremely seriously, “This is not sweet and sour sauce; there is no honey in this! Hello? It’s BBQ!” I said, “I’m sorry I didn’t hear what you said I was admiring your gorgeous leather purse.”

Who are “They”?

2005-04-17T15:00:00.000-04:00

Every question from these bird people began with “they say” …. “They say I should put black pepper into my nuts to keep the squirrels out, is this true?” “They say squirrels have an 80% chance of having rabies, so I should shoot them” “They say that if I hang a yellow scarf next to my feeder, the squirrels will think it's a large cat and not go near the food”

With a little bit of a grin, I know this is partially my fault, I said “a yellow scarf?” (And there was a little bit if a laugh in my voice) The older gentleman got a little agitated at my question and proceeded to explain to me what a scarf was in a very condescending manner. I swallowed that, but when he got to explaining what the color yellow was, I had to do something.
This was not how I wanted to start the class. So I said “I apologies for laughing, I didn’t mean any disrespect”. In a slightly frightened but stern voice I asked “Sir, tell me you did not hang a yellow scarf near or around your bird feeder?” He nodded yes. I said “yellow is to a squirrel is like red is to a bull (Note: bulls are colorblind and they react to the motion of the cape not the color but I think these bird people got the picture). I continued to say “yellow will cause something know as “fury frenzy” if two or more squirrels are within 25 feet of each other making those 80% rabid squirrels infuriated and the only thing that could make it worst?”. I looked back at class full of blank faces and said “pepper”. 6 people got up and left the class.

BTW: Yellow scares the crap out of squirrels.

No Class

2005-04-17T13:30:00.000-04:00

Did I walk into a blood bath! These “bird people” are extremely malicious. I enter the classroom and people begin whispering very very loud “spspspppspp that’s the guy sspspspsp”. I hate the sound of whispering, especially bad, loud, I can see you type whispering. It’s like you’re whispering because you know you’re saying stuff you really shouldn’t and you want me to kind of hear it.

Lecture: Squirrels 101

2005-04-17T06:00:00.000-04:00

Today I will be giving a lecture on my Squirrel findings to a bird enthusiast community in Providence, RI. Although my love for birds consists of mainly eating them, it is a paying job so I took it.

There is a lot of miss information about squirrels – I call them “rodent rumors”. I’m sure I’ll have to handle some negative questions about squirrels getting into their fancy feeder eating their expensive bird food meant for red-breasted-what-evers or yellow-tailed-who-cares. These are the same people who don’t like even native “plain” birds that eat the food meant for the snobby birds. They also whine when the birds they DO like eat the food but shit on the feeder. They think these birds should develop manners and be grateful because they are feeding them the (how do birds know) finest grains and find another place to drop. Did you know that birds pee and poop at the same time? The smooth white goop is the urine, and the center dark mass sometimes granular but smells like a beef soup is the feces.

Enough about birds back to “rodent rumors”
Many think there are three “types” of squirrels - the flying squirrel the tree squirrel and the ground squirrel. But in fact there is over 14 different types of squirrel most of which can be found in the northeast part of the United States. Along with the three listed above there is the Rock, High Grass, Low Grass and the 5 toed squirrel. This is not to be confused with the “species”. There are over 100-120 in Rhode Island alone.

Most squirrels eat raw meat and sometimes fish not nuts, seeds, grain, and fruit like you see on TV cartoons. I was surprised by the amount of fish they eat because it was thought that they were poor swimmers. The fact is squirrels are better swimmers then they are climbers.

Experiments

2005-04-16T19:25:00.000-04:00

All data gathered will be posted for each of the “experiments”. Even though these are highly controlled experiments, I’ll not be wearing a lab coat or safety goggles. My wife may have a clipboard, but that is something she’s tying to work out herself and it really has nothing to do with the Squirrel Project.
Supplies and directions will be provided for each of the obstacles (complete with images) so that you to can build your very own "Squirrel Obstacle Course” or SOC. Just make sure when you are at Home Depot or Lowe’s don’t mention that you’re building a squirrel obstacle course. Informing others of your experiment may lead, no not may, WILL lead them to build their own SOC which will skew the data.

Getting Ready - Mar Men 4 Step Plan

2005-04-10T13:00:00.000-04:00

I have come up with Mar-Men 4 Step Plan to get ready for each year of The Squirrel Project (TSP).

Step 1 I watch and write down on paper something I see.
Step 2 Take a guess to put in plain words what I saw – I just guess.
Step 3 The best part is I use that guess to guess that I’ll see something else.
Step 4 Then I do some experiments to see if guessed right then I get a few of my friends to tell me I guessed right.

Because my friends told me I guessed right because they don’t know any better – I get another year of funding. Can you Say Tax Free!

Harm

2005-04-09T18:07:00.000-04:00

Note: Squirrel Obstacle Courses or SOCs will not be construed to harm any animals. All blades have protective plastic sheathes and triggered projectiles have blunt tips meant to stun and not kill. All electricity obstacles and shock plates are at a low voltage, I will demonstrate this to you by placing my own 3 year old niece on a plate, she thinks it tickles.

Max
http://squirrelproject.blogspot.com/