The Central Park Squirrel Census

Some people ask why anyone would want to do a census of all the squirrels in Central Park. Others ask why not?

1 minute read

October 18, 2019, 1:00 PM PDT

Pranay Pareek / Unsplash

"If you’ve ever wondered how many squirrels live in New York City’s Central Park, there’s finally an answer: 2,373," reports Linda Poon.

"That number comes from the first squirrel census of Manhattan’s largest park, conducted by Jamie Allen and more than 300 volunteers who made it their mission to count and observe the rodents living in the 843 acres of green space," adds Poon.

Allen is a humorist and a write, according to Poon, so the reasoning behind the census are less than serious, but the census still required serious effort. In addition to the numbers of how many squirrels are living in Central Park, Allen's team also produced findings like locations, colors of furs, and if they were hanging out in groups.

Allen eventually plans to release the data collected by the squirrel census on the city of New York's open data portal.

FULL STORY: The Squirrel Census Answers a Question You Weren’t Asking

Monday, June 24, 2019 in CityLab

Environment Social / Demographics New York New York City Manhattan Central Park Squirrel Census Squirrels Urban wildlife View More

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