What is the behavior of a Red

. Our study shows that specific behaviours of these squirrels, such as aggression, grooming and calling, have frequently been recorded on YT videos. The present paper uses this open data for the first time to compare differences between the frequency of some types of behaviour in two habitats. Based on detrended correspondence analysis, we show a significant difference in sets of behaviours between two squirrel species. Our investigation show that YT can be a source for monitoring the behaviour of wild species, especially in urban habitats, thus affording insights into the species plasticity of urban individuals. YT, as part of citizen science, is a potential source of information in behavioural ecology.

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Introduction

Since the beginnings of culture, humans have been interested in nature, which, as a source of food, materials, and tools, has played an important part in our everyday life (Dobzhansky, 1962). Observation of animal behaviour has played a role in the development of human culture, from historical beliefs concerning gods and idols in ancient religions (Houlihan, 1986; Pande and Pande, 2016) to present-day inspirations and emotional pleasure, i.e. by ecotourism (Ormsby and Mannle, 2006; Reddy and Yosef, 2016). Nowadays, although half of the world's population lives in cities (UNEP, 2014), humans still need connections with nature (Manfredo, 2008). This need, combined with new technologies, the popularity of social media, and the ‘share/like’ culture, has created an opportunity for scientific research, resulting in a new branch of science. Citizen science, whereby data are collected, shared, and uploaded (e.g. as videos or photos) by amateurs, has become an important tool in scientific research. Modern technology, encompassing images taken by smartphones and drones and the use of profiled online websites, cloud applications, basic surveys, and interviews with amateur scientists, constitutes a database for citizen science projects (Hausmann et al., 2017).

One segment of citizen science projects is based on data from social media networks. Social media are recognised as a potential supplementary data source, involving not only social and physical phenomena but also environmental and ecological domains (Chapron, 2015). However, these social data sources have not yet been explored by scientists. Online sources are potentially significant in many biodiversity studies, as they involve interaction between human perception and nature, and thus serve as important tools in the conservation of landscapes and ecosystems (Oteros-Rozas et al., 2016). Previous studies have demonstrated the important role of social media in e.g. capturing information on biodiversity, promoting visitation and tourism in protected areas (Hausmann et al., 2018), or monitoring red-listed (van der Wal and Arts, 2015) or invasive (Mori et al., 2017) species.

For instance, in ecological and behavioural studies, Google Images has served as a database for a study of mutualistic associations of African mammals and birds (Mikula et al., 2018). Photos from web pages for bird watchers, e.g. eBird and iNaturalist, were used to assess the distribution of invasive Amazon parrot species (Amazona spp.) (Mori et al., 2017). Many sources of citizen science, such as Google, Google Images, Flickr, and YT, were used to determine, on a global scale, predation on bats by diurnal birds of prey (Mikula et al., 2016). In plant ecology, a great deal of data from citizen science is supplied to global databases, such as GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility), enabling more definite conclusions regarding e.g. the impact of climate change on tree species distributions (Dyderski et al., 2018).

Our study aimed to assess which behaviour types are recorded by people in YT videos. YT, the best worldwide tool at present for sharing videos, has been used as a suitable database for citizen science projects, e.g. a study on the behaviour of shrikes (Laniidae) (Dylewski et al., 2017). In this study we focused on two squirrel species: the red (Sciurus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758) and the grey one (Sciurus carolinensis Gmelin, 1788). These species were chosen based on certain identification and moderate abundance. We focused on videos filmed in Europe, specifically on behaviour filmed in two habitat types: urban and forest. We hypothesised that in an urban environment, due to greater human population density in comparison to rural environments, the number of videos featuring squirrels would be greater, and that, in accordance with differences in the biology and behaviour of squirrels, the frequency of recorded types of behaviour would vary as well. The grey squirrel is an invasive alien species in Europe, responsible for the decline of red squirrels in Britain Isles and in Italy (Gurnell and Pepper, 1993; Gurnell et al., 2004a,b; Bertolino et al., 2014); due to the higher ability of the introduced species to exploit trophic resources with respect to the native ones (Wauters et al., 2002a,b; Gurnell et al., 2006). Nevertheless, the interference competition hypothesis was rejected by Wauters and Gurnell (1999), where aggressive and competitive behaviour of grey squirrel did not influence the success of the invasion. We also investigated whether recorded types of behaviour varied between habitats. Our study enabled us to determine whether YT videos are biased by human preferences (e.g. recording only interesting behaviour), which may limit their usage in ecological research.

Section snippets

Data collection

We conducted a search for YT videos (uploaded from 2005 to 2016) featuring red and grey squirrels, according to location. In the case of red squirrels, we limited our study to occurrences within the European range of the species; in the case of grey squirrels, we limited to invasive range (the UK, Ireland, and Italy). We searched YT using the scientific and common name of the species in every language in use where the species occur. For this research, we included only videos representing cases

Results

We found that feeding and movement were the behaviours most frequently recorded, at 30.8% and 15.4% for grey squirrels, 36.7% and 24.3% for red squirrels in forest environments, respectively, and 40.7% and 16.9% for grey squirrels, 40.2% and 21.3% for red squirrels in urban environments, respectively (Fig. 1).

We found no significant difference in frequency of behaviour type between the two species of squirrels in forest (χ2 = 12.30, df = 8, p = 0.138) and urban (χ2 = 3.22, df = 8, p = 0.919)

Discussion

We have shown that specific behaviours in squirrels, such as aggression, grooming, and calling, are frequently recorded on YT videos and differ between habitats. The behaviours most frequently noted in both squirrel species in both habitat types were feeding and movement. Our research indicates that the most frequent behaviours of red squirrels were foraging (35%) and movement (15%); these percentages are much lower than those found in an earlier study (Tonkin, 1983), according to which

Conclusion

YT constitutes an element of citizen science as a potential source and challenge in behavioural biology (Dylewski et al., 2017; Frigerio et al., 2018). This novel approach to behavioural studies may save researchers time, increase sample sizes, and enable the study of the specific behaviour of many species from other continents through access to video material from habitats that are otherwise inaccessible. YT videos may become a very helpful tool to describe novel animal behaviour or provide

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Marcin Tobolka (Institute of Zoology, Poznań University of Life Sciences), Prof. Andrzej M. Jagodziński (Institute of Dendrology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kórnik), Dr. Emiliano Mori (Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena) and anonymous reviewer for critical comments on the manuscript. We also thank Malwina Maslankiewicz for helping with collecting part of the data.

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      What personality does red have?

      If red is your favorite color, it's said that you are bold, boisterous, and full of energy. Your spontaneous nature and need for adventure makes you a passionate and ambitious individual, and you also might harbor a slight competitive streak.

      What is normal red Behaviour?

      Red is often associated with excitement, danger, violence, aggression, and sex.

      What emotions describe red?

      (2009) have shown that people tend to associate red with negative, danger-bearing emotions, since it is the color of fire, blood, anger, and sometimes of poisonous or dangerous animals.

      Is red aggressive?

      Men wearing red were rated as more aggressive and more dominant and were more often categorized as 'angry' than targets wearing grey or blue.