Resource Partitioning by Grant J. Chun

For the resource partitioning assignment, I went to observe a tree right in front of the Belden Apartment in DePaul's Lincoln Park campus. On this tree, I found 3 different evidences of resource partitioning. First evidence is the birds nest that I saw above the tree. It was a small nest made out of little tree branches. I was fortunate to see a bird actually flying toward the nest and landing on it. Judging by how big the bird was, I speculated that the bird was a mother bird who came back after a long day to take care of her baby birds. The bird was part of resource partitioning because it used the tree as a source of shelter. Second evidence I saw was multiple scratch marks around the bottom trunk area of the tree. The size of the marks were small so I assume that small animals like a squirrel went up and down the tree multiple times. Trees have different resources that sometimes have food for squirrels. Because of this, my reasoning tells me that the squirrel went up the tree for food most likely. The third and final evidence of resource partitioning that I saw from the tree was clipped and broken tree branches on top part of the trees. This shows that it did not occur due to natural means. It was more of a work by people who went up via machinery to chop down unnecessary branches. In conclusion, the 3 evidences I saw were the birds nest, scratched claw marks on the tree, and broken/clipped branches on several parts of the upper branch. For the species, the 3 major species that I believe to have influenced the resource partitioning process are the bird, squirrel/small rodent-like animal, and damage done by humans with the aid of the machine.