My student Jake Beckstead (’16) recently set up three squirrel nest boxes with web cams that are now up on three trees on the College of Wooster campus (near Kauke, Scovel and Severance Halls). It took about 3 or 4 weeks for the squirrels to get comfortable with them but all three have now been stuffed with leaves and are being used regularly. The live video (and sound) means we can peek in on them whenever we want and see what they have been up to. We’re hoping to get some females to give birth in our nest boxes, but for now they mostly do a lot of sleeping when they are not out foraging. Rest assured, we are collecting data on the secret lives of Wooster squirrels.
In the near future we hope to be able to stream the live video to the Wooster website, keep your eyes open for that!