{"id":138392,"date":"2019-07-31T11:30:35","date_gmt":"2019-07-31T15:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=138392"},"modified":"2019-07-31T11:57:19","modified_gmt":"2019-07-31T15:57:19","slug":"the-central-park-squirrel-census","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/07\/31\/the-central-park-squirrel-census\/","title":{"rendered":"The Central Park Squirrel Census"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jamie Allen is the creator of the Squirrel Census, a data, science, design, and storytelling team. With the help of 323 volunteer Squirrel Sighters, the six-person team performed a count of eastern grays in Central Park in October 2018. In June of this year, they released the <\/em>Central Park Squirrel Census 2019 Report.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When you put on a squirrel census, you get asked a lot of questions.<\/p>\n

One of the most popular is, Why? In an era marred by gaslighting, climate change, and ill temper, it\u2019s almost as if the act of tallying squirrels becomes the one hunk of gristle that people can\u2019t swallow. But it\u2019s time to answer the difficult questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWait a minute\u2014why<\/em>?\u201d is the query that aims for the project\u2019s jugular.<\/p>\n

Though the Squirrel Census team had completed several counts of eastern grays in Atlanta, some observers couldn\u2019t take us seriously when we set our sights on Manhattan\u2019s Central Park in October of 2018. It may astound you, but there has never before been a comprehensive count of squirrels in Central Park. Squirrels are really common, of course, and paying close attention to their numbers, while other animals are going extinct, was an effort deemed a bit too twee and citified. On several occasions, our census was labeled a \u201cquirky science project.\u201d Maybe that\u2019s at least partly true. But this is key: once you have filed the project into these categories, you have inhibited your view of it. For instance, we are conditioned by the media to assume that every legitimate research project must have an identifiable, singular purpose: why<\/em>. You perform a controlled study to find out ___________. But this was a census, which doesn\u2019t seek one answer. It gathers loads of data and stories. In that mosaic emerges a clearer overall picture of the species and the space it inhabits.<\/p>\n

Further, most scientists and researchers I\u2019ve encountered enjoy our project, in part because they appreciate any act of discovery that claims no other reason than \u201cbecause.\u201d Many scientists and researchers are poets at heart. Or maybe poets are scientists and researchers at heart. In the end, they are trying to answer the Big Questions in life: How did we get here? What is the meaning of all this? Why doesn\u2019t he\/she love me?<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As a writer, I see the Squirrel Census not as a study or even a census of squirrels, but as an endeavor in the humanities. Not unlike Christo and Jeanne-Claude\u2019s The Gates<\/em>, the two-week-long Central Park count was a public-space art project (and a fresh way for people to interact with one of the best-known parks in the world); it was a wholly original form of community building; it was a way to learn about city squirrels, their habits and behaviors, and their numbers (squirrels are remarkably overlooked in research studies). And most of all, it was\u2014is<\/em>\u2014a story, a whole and complete narrative presented through multimedia platforms. It is about squirrels, yes, but it is also about the park, and the city, and life in general.<\/p>\n

During the Central Park count, volunteer Squirrel Sighters enjoyed searching for squirrels as though on a scavenger hunt; they also remarked how it tuned them to their assigned park hectares as though to a clear country radio station on some backroad of life. They heard and saw new things, or things so old they had forgotten them. They wrote down observations about both squirrels and park-goers on the tally sheets and maps we provided. A friend remarked, \u201cWhen people in the city go to the park, they finally have room to act like themselves.\u201d By that claim, Sighters were recording notes on Sciurus carolinensis<\/em>, but they were also scribbling down the activities of Homo sapiens<\/em> in their most natural state, circa 2018: people hanging out and acting out, playing and competing, loving and kissing, arguing and struggling, podcast-listening and daydreaming, running (lots of runners!) and calling after their dogs (so many dogs), laughing and crying and, like squirrels, just being alive.<\/p>\n

In June, we released our Central Park Squirrel Census 2019 Report<\/em>. We chose to make maps the primary storytelling apparatus. Nat Slaughter, the project cartographer (and its visual author), designed a one-of-a-kind, five-foot-long \u201cterrestrial\u201d survey of Central Park that reflects the human experience. He followed that by generating a five-foot-long \u201ccelestial\u201d data visualization that illustrates the squirrel experience\u2014gray and cinnamon and black squirrels spangling the park, clustering in varying densities like stars in a galaxy. The Report<\/em> includes the \u201cSquirrel Supplemental,\u201d a booklet filled with data, a 45-RPM experiential soundtrack of Central Park, and associated memorabilia. Asking us why we did it is like asking a band why they make music. It\u2019s simply what we do<\/em>\u2014the instruments we play make this sound.<\/p>\n

Below you\u2019ll find a sampling of Sighter notes on squirrels observed during the Central Park Squirrel Census. Squirrels do very odd things. Very human things. Very relatable things. The eastern gray is fascinating, if we only stop for a moment, in all the madness, to observe.<\/p>\n

A SAMPLING OF SQUIRREL OBSERVATIONS
\nFrom the Central Park Squirrel Census 2019 Report
\n<\/em>Notated By the Park Hectare In Which They Occurred<\/p>\n

1B \u201cWould come up and fight pigeons.\u201d<\/p>\n

1D \u201cWould find a round object on the ground \u2026 and tumble\/roll around with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

2A \u201cReal hams posing for the camera.\u201d<\/p>\n

3D \u201cBeing chased by a small child.\u201d<\/p>\n

5C \u201cSearching for something … but couldn\u2019t find it.\u201d<\/p>\n

6B \u201cSeemed very comfortable in his skin.\u201d<\/p>\n

7F \u201cStaring into space.\u201d<\/p>\n

8F \u201cBeing photographed by three people while eating and watching calmly.\u201d<\/p>\n

9G \u201cEmerged from a small cluster of wildflowers.\u201d<\/p>\n

10D \u201cLike an acrobat, hanging onto branch by its legs upside-down.\u201d<\/p>\n

14A \u201cFlailing his arms out.\u201d<\/p>\n

15E \u201cEating together, silently.\u201d<\/p>\n

15H \u201cRubbing its face after digging, the way a human would spread lotion on her face.\u201d<\/p>\n

15I \u201cStood like he was part kangaroo \u2026 poised to punch.\u201d<\/p>\n

16E \u201c\u2018Scoffed\u2019 at us.\u201d<\/p>\n

18I \u201cBehaving erratically.\u201d<\/p>\n

19A \u201cLooked both ways before crossing sidewalk.\u201d<\/p>\n

21A \u201cOne appeared to mount the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

23E \u201cEating trash by a picnic table.\u201d<\/p>\n

21F \u201cSeems to enjoy classical music.”<\/p>\n

32A \u201cExtremely scampery.\u201d<\/p>\n

33F \u201cGot bored.\u201d<\/p>\n

33G \u201cSort of lunged at me with his torso.\u201d<\/p>\n

33I \u201cLooked suspiciously at me while using its hind legs to pat the ground protectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

34C \u201cJumping around and looking almost as if it was chasing the sparrows for fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

36B \u201cApproached me on hind legs and puffed out its chest.\u201d<\/p>\n

36G \u201cFound because of how loud it was eating.\u201d<\/p>\n

37E \u201cSteps forward, puts front paw to chest.\u201d<\/p>\n

41A \u201cStared at me, as if asking, Why are you following me?\u201d<\/p>\n

42H \u201cAppeared to be engaging in a flirtatious yet combative ritual.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jamie Allen has published work in\u00a0<\/em>The Oxford American, <\/i><\/em>McSweeney\u2019s Internet Tendency, <\/i><\/em>The Missouri Review, <\/i><\/em>New South, <\/i><\/em>Eyeshot,<\/i> and other outlets. For more information about the <\/em>Central Park Squirrel Census 2019 Report, which includes the estimated Central Park squirrel population and an explanation of the count methodology, visit thesquirrelcensus.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you put on a squirrel census, you get asked a lot of questions. One of the most popular is, Why?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1812,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-culture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Central Park Squirrel Census by Jamie Allen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"July 31, 2019 \u2013 When you put on a squirrel census, you get asked a lot of questions. 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