By Katherine NesSmith
Fall 2023
The craziest residents I know on campus. They steal food, trash the streets, and sometimes even attack other residents on campus. They have been spotted around the library and Theta Pond. They are always looking for their next meal. No, I am not talking about some insane fraternity or sorority, I’m talking about squirrels and the other wildlife on campus. There are a variety of animals on campus and Oklahoma State University has even taken measures to help protect our crazy neighbors here on campus.
Most students have a good outlook on the wildlife on campus. A poll that I conducted on October 11th, 2023, concluded that a whopping Seventy-Six percent of participants had positive reactions to animals on campus many stating that they were “cute”. Only one participant in this poll stated that they had a negative experience with the animals on campus.
While most students have positive feelings attached to the wildlife on campus there were a surprising number of students who claimed or implied that the animals, in particular squirrels, were fake or bought by Oklahoma State University. When asked “How do you feel about the squirrels and other wildlife on campus?” One student stated, “They (Oklahoma State Wildlife) almost seem fake in their habits,”. “I don’t mind them (wildlife) but I wish we weren’t charged fees just so the squirrels could be imported.” another student said. One student even stated in the survey that Oklahoma State University should get other animals, “I love them (wildlife) 10/10. We should get deer!”.
One chilling response to the poll caught my attention and while it may be fake, I think that it deserves to be heard just because of the absurdity of it. “The squirrels are way too confident, they stole my Chick-fil-A, wallet, and my room key to my dorm. My roommate still hasn’t noticed that I’ve been replaced by a bunch of squirrels in a trench coat.” I’m not sure how this could have even happened. I tried to contact the student who made this account, but I have not received any response to clarify or explain how this might have occurred.
Many students have reported seeing a large number of animals with a majority of participants in the poll seeing three to four squirrels a day on average. The most sightings were reported around Theta Pond and Edmond Low Library. One popular critter that seems to infuriate students at Oklahoma State University is Crickets with one student saying, “GET RID OF THE STUPID CRICKETS”. Although squirrels are undoubtedly the most common of animals seen on campus along with geese and ducks following close behind in sightings (Campus Wildlife, October 11th, 2023). I have seen many squirrels, geese, ducks, and various dead birds.
Oklahoma State University has been recently trying to combat the accidental deaths of birds by colliding into windows that they cannot see. They are doing this by adding “Feather Friendly window markers on the two buildings (Noble Research Center and Gallagher-Iba Arena), which are small white dots placed in 2-inch x 2-inch increments to let birds know there is an object.” (Boswell-Gore) The two buildings to which they have added the window markers to, Noble Research Center and Gallagher-Iba Arena, are the two most common places for collisions to occur, according to Corey Riding, a previous graduate student who was involved in this research.
Oklahoma State University is one of the first universities to have dedicated a large sum of money to bird-window collisions. According to Boswell-Gore, they have placed a sum of One hundred eighteen thousand dollars into this project. The results of this experiment have not been released as the research is still going on. The driving force behind this experiment is to limit the deaths by accidental window collisions, as Boswell-Gore stated, “windows are the largest source of bird collision mortality in North America, killing up to a billion birds annually in the U.S. alone and affecting more than 300 species.”
Oklahoma State University is home to a wide variety of animals from squirrels to deer. It is also a place where these animals and students coexist fairly seamlessly, except for the occasional identity theft it seems, but a majority of students seemed to have positive emotions linked to the animals on campus. Oklahoma State University has even dedicated thousands of dollars to help protect the animals that habitat of Oklahoma State University and other birds outside of the University.
Works Cited
Boswell-Gore, Alisa. “Oklahoma State University changes infrastructure to protect wildlife,” Ag Research, August 14, 2023, https://agresearch.okstate.edu/news/articles/2023/oklahoma-state-university- changes-infrastructure-to-protect- wildlife.html#:~:text=The%20university%20recently%20finished%20installing,they%20reduced% 20collisions%20by%2064%25.
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