Amanda Keyes
Department of Biological Sciences, UW-Milwaukee, ahkeyes@uwm.edu
Conservation of biodiversity requires accurate species lists for particular properties and monitoring of population trends over time, to detect population declines for species of interest before they become severe. The UWM Field Station property includes a high-quality old-growth beech-maple forest that is one of the best remaining examples of this type of forest in southeastern Wisconsin. The Field Station maintains a list of the mammals that can be found in the forest, but the southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans) has never been documented there. Flying squirrels are not frequently seen because they nest in cavities and are active only at night, so it was entirely possible that flying squirrels were inhabiting the forest but that they had not been detected. For this project, ten nest boxes were secured to trees along a transect in the old-growth beech-maple forest. The boxes were checked once a month for nesting material, nuts, or G. volans. A second method used for detection was a feeding tray. A wildlife camera was trained on the feeding tray, capturing images of nocturnal visitors. In 2015, the wildlife camera documented G. volans at the feeding trays. No signs of flying squirrels were found in the nest boxes. Results from the wildlife camera, plus data on G. volans from other sites in the Milwaukee area, are currently being analyzed. Undergraduate research project, Dr. Gretchen Meyer, advisor.