Flying Squirrel Project

Glaucomys sabrinus

Glaucomys volans

The flying squirrel project takes place in Schmeekle Reserve in the fall and spring of the year. Schmeekle is a very unique place for this project because both Northern and Southern Flying Squirrels can be found there. The project itself is unique in that we are studying a nocturnal species and therefore do much of our field work in the middle of the night and early in the morning. One of the main objects of the project is to study the interactions of these two subspecies. The way we try to meet this objective is by trapping the squirrels and then radio-collaring them to track their movement and find their home range. Trapping takes place for several weeks during the fall. Traps are placed in a modified grid. We use a grid system in order to find the traps. We modify the grid because the traps need to be placed in crooks of trees where the squirrels land or along fallen trees where they run. This year our trap success was greatly increased by placing the traps in these areas. We were able to trap 12 southern flying squirrels. We also caught some chipmunks and gray squirrels. One northern was collared and 3 southerns were collared. Telemetry equipment was then used to track and record the movements of the collared squirrels. We found that there was no overlap of home ranges between the two species. This spring we will not be trapping squirrels due to the fact that we do not want to keep any lactating females from their young. However, we do plan to take down any cavity boxes that are not currently occupied by flying squirrels and moving them to different locations in Schmeekle Reserve.

For more information on the flying squirrel project, flying squirrels in general, or ways that you can participate please contact the co-leaders of the project: