Geo-referenced and documented red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) midden sites from 2016 and 2017 in a highly used forest area behind the University of Alaska, Fairbanks

Abstract

This dataset consists out of 29 presence points of red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus, Taxonomic Serial No.: 180166) midden sites. Data was collected in a highly human-used forest area behind the University of Alaska, Fairbanks for summer 2016 (n= 29) and winter/spring 2017 (n=20).The data set consists of an ESRI shapefile for each year. Data was collected in two consecutive years (2016-2017). The first set of data points (summer 2016) was collected with a land cruising survey design and recorded with a GPS unit, based on an opportunistic course project work by R. Adams. The second data collection campaign took place in spring 2017 to check whether the squirrel midden sites from 2016 are still in use (data collected by R. Robold). The coordinate system is decimal degree (5 decimals) and with a geographic projection NAD_1983_Alaska_Albers. The excel sheet has five columns (site ID, a short description of the vegetation, latitude, longitude, and one if the middens are still used in 2017); the excel document (midden_data_with_control.xlsx) size is 10 KB (2017). The map is a JPEG-file (Midden_sites_2016-27_RR) with a size of 3MB and the shapefiles have an overall size of ca. 50 KB each. This data set is the basis for ongoing study on squirrels in the boreal forest and urban areas.