In Erin Arnson’s final year of her degree, her school life and personal life came together for a memorable summer research project studying Franklin’s ground squirrels at campgrounds around Alberta. 

“It was the best of two worlds – getting to do work and then also camp on top of it,” says Arnason, who says she grew up outside. “Being in nature made me appreciate it and I always knew I wanted to do something where I could protect it.” 

Arnason first learned about the squirrels – one of 14 species in Alberta – in a 300-level biology class with Dr. Jessica Haines, an assistant professor in Biological Sciences. When Arnason approached Dr. Haines, she was invited to do field research gathering data to confirm whether the population is decreasing in number. 

Currently, on the Government of Alberta’s Wild Species Status website, Franklin’s ground squirrels are listed as "undetermined," which means there’s not enough information about them to determine how these squirrels are faring.

So researchers, including the Bachelor of Science student, are collecting data with some help from citizen scientists.

Thanks to other Albertans who are worried about the species, Arnason and Dr. Haines knew where to find the squirrels – in provincial parks. In acts of “citizen science,” people all around the province who share an appreciation of animals, including Franklin’s ground squirrels, take photos and upload them into the iNaturalist app while noting things like time of year and location to help build data on certain species. 

“That's how we knew where to go first to look for the squirrels – based on citizen sightings,” says Arnason, who received an Undergraduate Student Research Internship (USRI) grant to do this work.

Arnason’s research focused on tracking the squirrels using photography – she set up cameras around each of the research sites. 

“It was a lot of trial and error until we found what worked best on the different field sites,” she says. “If it was a super grassy area, we needed to lift the cameras a little bit higher on trees.”

The team also trialled baiting the cameras, to see if they would have better luck capturing images of the squirrels. 

“They love peanut butter,” she says. “If we put it directly in front of the cameras, they would come right up to them.” 

Although her time out in the field is done, follow-up work related to that research – including a final presentation to faculty – continues to give Arnason opportunities to push herself outside of her comfort zone. 

“I really don't like presenting,” she confesses. “But conservation is a lot about connecting with other people, collaboration and chatting with people to spread the knowledge of what I've learned and to also hear what others have learned.” 

She has a paper slated for publication in an upcoming issue of Nature Alberta, plus she will be doing a poster presentation at the Alberta Chapter of The Wildlife Society Conference in March, where she’ll be able to continue to collaborate and share her passion for this work. 

“Being able to go out and gain more information about the squirrels was eye opening for me,” she said. “I had such an amazing experience, and it made me realize that conservation and wildlife biology are things I'm really interested in. ”

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