This intern analyzed data from a study of the San Bernardino Northern Flying Squirrel. The data came from 12 camera trap sites across 3 forest types. The analysis found the squirrel was present most often in Mixed Hardwood Conifer forests, which had the highest visitation rates and shortest times to find bait. Montane Hardwood had moderate presence and Sierren Mixed Conifer had the lowest metrics, but more data is needed to draw firm conclusions. The intern concluded Mixed Hardwood Conifer appears to be the preferred habitat type based on the available data.

1. San Bernardino Northern
Flying Squirrel Graphic
Analysis
By Temur Imam

2. About Me
 Born in Manhattan, NYC
 Moved to Tokyo, Japan when I was 7 years old and lived there until I was about
12. I moved back to town called Harrison, NY and then moved to Rye, NY
where my family currently lives.
 Favorite hobbies are surfing, snowboarding, and playing guitar.
 I fell in love with environmental science after taking AP Environmental Science
Junior year of high school.
 Currently, I am attending UC San Diego studying Environmental Systems.
 Coming to San Diego has been a lifelong dream and honestly I’m not sure if I’m
going back.

3. What this Internship meant and What I’ve
Gained from My Experience
 Being given the opportunity to apply my academics first hand to conservation has truly been an
amazing experience.
 Researching literature to assist in the experimental design of the study really gave me a glimpse of
how research and conservation comes together.
 This internship has truly shown me that my love of science isn’t confined in a laboratory.
 Going into the field, hiking to points, and gathering data is an adventure itself. I was able to see
things people may never see in their lifetime and at the same time I was contributing to a project
that I truly care about.
 Now that you know a little about me, lets get down to it.

4. The Data
At the beginning of the study there were 15 sites, however we removed 2 sites
because of lost habitat due to forest fires leaving us with 13 sites.
We set up camera traps at each of these sites, however we had to remove one of
the sites because a bear ate the bait and camera on night 1, so the data for that
sight is not applicable.
We understand that with only 12 data points there is a low sample size, however
there is still valuable data within these sights that could uncover a pattern with
squirrel presence and activity.

5. The Data
 In our sample, we had three different forest types: Montane Hardwood
Conifer, Sierren Mixed Conifer, and Montane Hardwood.
 I then extracted the presence/absence data, total visits, total activity, and
amount of time it took to find the bait and graphed the data in reference to
forest types.
 Because our sample size was small, I could not do any statistical analysis,
however cross-referencing our data with forest type may help us uncover a
pattern.
 My analysis will help future individuals involved in the project to begin to
gage in on what forest type the San Bernardino Northern Flying Squirrel may
prefer in order to provide a habitat model for any possible future need for
remediation or management.

6. The Data
 I graphed the Presence and Absence at our 12 data points
 The Flying Squirrel was not present at all points, but was present at all forest
types.
0
1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
P/A

7. Total Amount of Visits
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Total amount of Visits 39 0 10 1 2 0 0 0 6 0 0 47
Total amount of Visits
SMC
MHC
MHW

8. Total Activity
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Total Activity 110 0 14 1 3 0 0 0 110 0 0 939
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
Activity
Total Activity
SMC
MHC
MHW

9. Time it Takes to Find Bait
1 3 4 5 9 12
Time it Takes to Find Bait (Days) 4 29 24 8 2 3
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
TotalNumberofDays
Time it Takes to Find Bait
SMC
MHC
MHW

10. Results: Sierren Mixed Conifer
 In our data set there were 3 points SMC points.
 Of those points there was 1 point where the Flying Squirrels were present,
giving it a success rate of about 33%
 This point had a total 2 visits and an activity rate of 3
 At this point it took 8 days to find the bait

11. Results: Montane Hardwood
 In our data set there were 4 MHC points
 Of those points there were 2 points where the Flying Squirrels were present
giving this forest type a success rate of 50%
 These points had a total of 11 visits and a combined activity rate of 15
 Across the 2 points, the average time to find the bait was 26.5 days

12. Results: Mixed Hardwood Conifer
 In our data set there were 5 MHC points
 Of those points there were 3 points where the Flying Squirrels were present
giving this forest type a success rate of 80%
 These points had a total of 92 visits and a combined activity rate of 1159
 Across the 3 points, the average time to find the bait was 3 days

13. Conclusion
 After looking at the results, it seems very prominent that Montane Hardwood
Conifer seems to be a forest type of preference.
 It surpasses both other forest types in total amount of visits by the squirrel and
activity rate
 The average amount of days to find the bait being only 3 days could also suggest
that they are highly present in this forest type because across all data points the
northern flying squirrel found the bait much quicker than it did in the other forest
types.
 I hypothesize Sierren Mixed Conifer may be utilized by the flying squirrel second to
mixed hardwood conifer and should not be out of consideration as good habitat
type. Although it only had two visits, the squirrel only taking 8 days to find the
bait may suggest that its utilizing this habitat type more than montane hardwood
which, on average, the squirrel took 26.5 days to find the bait, but we need more
data to conclude this theory.