For our resource partitioning activity we weren’t able to find much outside of McGowan hall. We decided to go out on our own and each find a tree with resource partitioning. Between the three of us, we found the best tree to be at Oz Park. It had evidence of at least four obvious signs of different species using the tree, and some other signs that suggest the presence of other species. The first sign were several crows. The crows were using the tree as a perch at the moment, but interestingly enough, the birds were taking bits of leaves away from the tree. Though not their permanent shelter, the crows found the tree to be a way to create shelter. The second sign were scratch marks running up the side of the tree, some of which left raw bark exposed. At first, these marks were thought to have been left by insects, but after a few moments, it became evident that these were marks left by squirrels. We can account for this because after a few moments of standing next to the tree, a squirrel crawled down the tree. It seemed to expect some kind of food judging by its proximity to us. The tree actually had several squirrels in the tree. The third sign of partitioning was moss growing along the tree, and the last sign was a spider web which was going along the trunk of the tree. This spider web actually suggests two forms of partitioning. The obvious one would be the spider, but since it wrapped its web along the tree trunk, it also suggests that the spider was hunting the insects which ran along the tree. Another suggestion of insects present in the tree was a series of holes located along the tree trunk. This could have been created by insects or birds trying to get at the insects inside the bark. The insects that could have been eating at the tree may have been termites. The tree itself was rather old so it could have been supporting termites for awhile. The birds that may have created the holes could have been a wood pecker or even the crows.
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