Question

You are interested in calculating population size of fox squirrels on UCA's campus in 2020 with the intention of repeating your methods in 2021 to assess whether the population increased, decreased, or stayed the same over this time period. Describe a semi-quantitative method of doing this and how the data are to be used to address the question. (6 pts)

Answer 1

SQUEAC Elements Stage 1: Semi- quantitative Assessment Understanding of barriers/boosters to coverage + Coverage estimation(%) Stage 2: Small Area Survey Stage 3: Wide-Area Survey Recommendations and Action Plans

SQUEAC semi-quantitative method:

SQUEAC is one of the ways to do this. A semi-quantitative test is the one in which you determine whether your quantified value is above or below a certai value. For example, if I ask you the number of apples you have, and you reply with 1 or 2 or 3, that would be quantitative. If you reply to the same question as more than 3 or less than 3 apples, that would be semi-quantitative method.

In the question given, the number of squirrels must be determined. As the method suggests different stages, we must follow it accordingly.

In the 1st stage, you would rely on the information you already have, if any and validate it by different methods. For example, the number of squirrels born, or number of squirrels that die, area where they are most observed, time at which they come out the most, where do they stay, which part of the year are the most observed etc.

Stage 2 would include conducting a small survey. Once the data is validated, consider a specific region in the campus where you feel the probability of observing the squirrels is the maximum. Take other factors into consideration and note down your results. The month of the year, region over which the survey is conducted, how long was the observation made etc. need to be considered.

Stage 3 - Once you have data from a small region (sample), the experiment must be conducted on the entire population. Basically, the same experiment, with unaltered parameters must be conducted on a large scale.

Note down different observations made.

In the next year, stage 1 data would be available. Set the value as the total number of squirrels on the campus in the year 2020 as your semi-quantitative data limit.

Once 2021 results are obtained, the two datasets can be compared to propose suitable hypotheses and recommendations as required.