Studying Behavioral Ecology on High School & College Campuses: A Practical Guide to Measuring Foraging Behavior Using Urban Wildlife

We present a practical field exercise for ecology and animal behavior classes that can be carried out on campus, using urban wildlife. Students document an animal’s feeding behavior to study its interactions with the surrounding environment. In this approach, an animal’s feeding behavior is quantified at experimental food patches placed within its habitat. Following a lecture on foraging ecology and an outdoor discussion about the animals on campus, students formulate questions and hypotheses. Simple statistical analyses are used to construct results and draw conclusions.