A Homemade Squirrel Baffle Works just as well as a Commercial Baffle when Deterring Squirrels from Pole Feeders.

Transcription

1 A Homemade Squirrel Baffle Works just as well as a Commercial Baffle when Deterring from Pole Feeders. Maren Cooper Center for Teaching and Learning Glenn Powers 27 March 2018

2 Abstract I researched whether a homemade squirrel baffle made from entirely recycled materials works as well as a standard cone-shaped commercial baffle. I set up two feeders, one with each baffle, and set up a trail camera to catch the squirrels. Just about every Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, I reset the feeders, checked my camera, and recorded the data I found; the number of squirrels that defeated each baffle, and how persistent they were. I recorded the numbers in a table, and the behaviors in a pie chart. I found that both baffles had a 100% success rate, I had three squirrels on my baffle, and two on the other, and all were defeated. Two of the squirrels were persistent, one was relatively persistent, and two were defeated easily. Based off of those results, I have come to the conclusion that a homemade baffle is just as effective as a commercial one, so people don t need to waste their money buying a commercial baffle, when they can just make one themselves. I also found that when there was more snow and more seed, the squirrels were more persistent, and when there was less snow and seed, they were less persistent. I Intro. My research question is whether a homemade squirrel baffle made from 100% recycled materials can be more effective than a standard cone shaped commercial baffle. Most people are buying commercial baffles that aren t that cheap, and aren t great for the environment when I think that there is a cheap baffle that you can easily make from household materials that keeps squirrels away as well as, if not better than, commercial baffles. People will buy a squirrel baffle for up to thirty dollars, and I am trying to create a baffle so people don t have to waste money on a baffle. a study from Bird ecology shows that birds are an important because they help with pest control, and disperse seeds to help the forest replenish. If squirrels are eating all the birdseed, then birds will fall behind in our ecosystem. We must also keep in mind however, that squirrels are also a very important part of our ecosystem, so we must be sure that we don t harm them or treat them as pests. Bio kids Diverse species sais that since squirrels eat so much seed, whether from a natural environment of

3 feeder, they spread those seeds around, helping vegetation replenish, which makes them very critical in our ecosystem. A study from Cornell Labs show that squirrels forage around the ground, scuffling under leaves in search of food. When they see a feeder, they will scale it and devour most of the seeds, which is why a baffle is necessary. Since they can jump up to three feet, the baffle needs to be high enough that they can t jump over it, and wide enough they can t jump around it. There is a theory that says that the time an animal spends on something depends on the reward it gives. Because a feeder is like a squirrel feast, it will spend a lot of effort to get to it, which is why we need baffles. Because both squirrels and bird are important, I think that the best solution to keeping squirrels off feeders in a cheap and easy way that doesn t hurt the environment is to create your own baffle from 100% recycled materials. Bird watching bliss shows that many people have attempted to create a homemade baffle using that same concept of the commercial ones, that the squirrel needs to not be able to jump onto it, and if they do, it needs to be hard to hang onto. With those basic concepts, they have created effective baffles, including a successful baffle from a metal bowl with a hole cut in it. II With the previous research I believe that I will be able to create a 100% recycled material squirrel baffle, that is as, if not more, effective than the standard commercial baffle, and that even if it isn t as effective. I believe that this will work, because if I follow the same principle concepts as a commercial baffle, with similar materials, I see no reason for it not to work, and since many others have attempted and thrived on this topic, although they didn t always use recycled materials, this supports my case as well. I also believe that this will be the best solution for this problem, because I am keeping squirrels from my feeders, while harming neither squirrels or birds in an easy to make and likely to be successful way. Methods For my investigation, I will need two six foot tall metal feeder poles, two clear plastic metal feeders, one tracking camera, one commercial cone shaped squirrel baffle, one bag of black oil sunflower seeds mixed with peanuts, and I gallon bottle to create my own baffle. I will create my baffle by cutting the bottom off a gallon bottle, and slitting and wrapping it around the feeder then duct taping it back together, so squirrels go under it and can t reach the seed. From February 6 th through March 12 th, I will set up my feeders every Tuesday, which I will fill with black oil sunflower seeds and peanuts, and hang on the feeder poles five feet apart in an open field.

4 One of the poles will have my baffle on it, and the other will have the commercial baffle. I will set up a motion-activated camera so that it watches both feeders. Then every Friday, I will check the cameras and tally the number of squirrels who have defeated each feeder. As well as the behaviors I observe. I will then make a table of the data, comparing how effective each baffle is. I will also make a pie chart of the behaviors I observe. Then I will set the experiment over again and repeat this process for five weeks. I will also take some observational data, of how the squirrels defeated the baffles, and if they did, the average number of seconds it took them. Homemade baffle Results Date Total # of squirrels defeated successful

5 commercial baffle Date Total # of squirrels defeated successful For both baffles, 100% of the squirrels that attempted the baffles were defeated. Because of this, and because my data consists of only ones and zeros, I am not able to use statistical results, but I can talk about behavior Defeated easily 40% Persistent 2/6-2/12 Squirrel Behavior Defeated easily 20% persistent 40% Relatively persistent 2/13-2/27 Defeated easily 2/27-3/ At first, the squirrels were very persistent, but as the time continued, they were defeated much easier, and by the end of my research time, the squirrels were defeated very easily. The chart shows that the percent of squirrels that were persistent and defeated easily were equal, and 20% more than the ones that were relatively persistent. My homemade baffle had one squirrel in each category, and the commercial one had a very persistent squirrel and a easily defeated squirrel. Persistent: Works for over 30 seconds. Relatively Persistent: works for 15 to 30 seconds. Easily defeated: works for less than 15 second.

6 Conclusion Based off of the data I collected, I have come to the conclusion that a homemade baffle made from recycled materials, works just as well as a standard cone-shaped commercial baffle. If you look at my data, you will see that I had three attempt my baffle, and were defeated, and two attempted the commercial baffle, and were defeated. This shows that my baffle works well, because it has a 100% success rate, just like the commercial baffle. Also if you look at my behavior results, you will see that I had a very persistent squirrel, a relatively persistent squirrel, and an easily defeated squirrel. This shows that even a persistent squirrel got defeated by my baffle, which proves that it is able to hold back persistent squirrels not just squirrels that are easily defeated. Looking back at the theory I explained in my introduction, about how the time an animal spends on something depends on the reward it gives. I found that the days a squirrel was very persistent, were days with a lot of snow, and more seed in the feeder, so I assume that the need for food and the reward it gave seemed higher to the squirrel, so they were willing to work harder to get it, and they were still defeated. The days that a squirrel was less persistent were days with less snow, and less seed, so the squirrel didn t need the food as much, or want it as much, so it wasn t willing to work as hard. Although I only found five squirrels in total, so I don t have a lot of data to base my claim off of, I am still quite confident in it. You could make the argument that I don t have enough data to make an accurate claim, and that it could just be a fluke that my baffle works. You could also say that my data isn t accurate because I used a trail camera, and it might not have caught everything, but because my baffle had a 100% success rate for three squirrels, I feel confident that if I were to continue my research, I would still find that it had a high success rate. Looking at the behaviors, where I found that they worked harder in harsher weather, I think that I can connect that to squirrels in the wild. They are easier targets for predators in harsher weather, because they focus more on food and how to get it, then staying protected. This can help us understand the higher predator-kill rates in winter, but in order to fully figure it out, I would need to conduct further research. I think that I can now say that it isn t worth it for people to waste money on commercial baffles, when they could easily make one themselves that works just as well.