Talk:Squirrel Census

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. Track your hook after promotion. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Procrastineur49 (talk) 11:35, 8 September 2026 (UTC)

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• Article history

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• ... that there was a census for squirrels?

• Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-census-counted-all-squirrels-central-park-180972480/

• • ALT1: ... that volunteers counted all the squirrels in Central Park? Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-census-counted-all-squirrels-central-park-180972480/
  • Reviewed: [[]]

Created by Vermont (talk). Number of QPQs required: 0. Nominator has fewer than 5 past nominations.

Vermont (🐿️—🏳️‍🌈) 04:07, 8 September 2026 (UTC).

• Recently moved from draftspace to mainspace. Long enough and well-cited. The first hook really tickles me and is the one that most leads people to click on the article. Krisgabwoosh (talk) 04:57, 8 September 2026 (UTC)

GA review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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This review is transcluded from Talk:Squirrel Census/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Vermont (talk · contribs) 04:12, 8 September 2026 (UTC)

Reviewer: MCE89 (talk · contribs) 05:01, 8 September 2026 (UTC)

Good Article review progress box

Criteria: 1a. prose () 1b. MoS () 2a. ref layout () 2b. cites WP:RS () 2c. no WP:OR () 2d. no WP:CV () 3a. broadness () 3b. focus () 4. neutral () 5. stable () 6a. free or tagged images () 6b. pics relevant () Note: this represents where the article stands relative to the Good Article criteria. Criteria marked are unassessed

Shall review this! MCE89 (talk) 05:01, 8 September 2026 (UTC)

All looks good to me now, passing :) MCE89 (talk) 03:54, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

Initial checks

• Images: Y Excellent squirrel
• Copyright: Y No issues apparent on Earwig. Will do further checks for close paraphrasing as part of my source spotchecks
• Stability and authorship: Y Just moved to mainspace, nominator is primary author

Prose review

• Launched by writer Jamie Allen in 2011, the first Squirrel Census was conducted in 2012 in Inman Park, Atlanta, which was repeated in 2015 -- A bit nitpicky, but the syntax of this final clause feels a little off to me. Suggest "and was followed by a second in 2015" or similar
  • Agreed, done. Vermont (🐿️—🏳️‍🌈) 03:16, 9 September 2026 (UTC)
• The first Squirrel Census -- I think "squirrel census" here and in a few other places should be lowercased, since it's being used as a common noun for an individual census rather than as a proper noun for the overall project
  • Agreed, done. Vermont (🐿️—🏳️‍🌈) 03:16, 9 September 2026 (UTC)
• Was it just the park named Inman Park that they surveyed, or the whole neighbourhood of Inman Park? At the moment it's a little ambiguous
  • The neighborhood! Made an edit to clarify; iiuc, there's no actual park called Inman Park. Vermont (🐿️—🏳️‍🌈) 03:16, 9 September 2026 (UTC)
• It might be worth making the relationship between the initial Inman Park censuses and the later Central Park census clearer within the article, i.e. that it was organised by the same team
  • Ooh true, added a clarification to the opener of the Central Park census section. Vermont (🐿️—🏳️‍🌈) 03:16, 9 September 2026 (UTC)
• ...the squirrel census project has been on hiatus since March 2021 -- This might be read as implying that a final squirrel census took place in March 2021, suggest clarifying what "been on hiatus" means here to avoid any misinterpretation
  • Makes sense, I've added some content on this. Vermont (🐿️—🏳️‍🌈) 03:16, 9 September 2026 (UTC)
• One comment on breadth: I think you could probably expand a little on the methods that were used for the census -- e.g. the NYT and Vox sources seem to have a bit of additional detail on the formula that was used and its origins. The fact that the team had a cartographer who spent 15 months making one of the most detailed maps of Central Park is also very cool and might be worth a mention.
  • This source might also be worth adding? (and you should totally mention PlaySquirrel Magazine!)
  • You could also mention that the Central Park census's report came with a vinyl record and baseball cards (not a breadth issue or anything, but surely too fun not to include)
    • Truly horrible of me to forget the vinyl record and baseball cards, I've rectified this! Also expanded on methods, added a line on the cartographer, and added the wapo source. Vermont (🐿️—🏳️‍🌈) 03:16, 9 September 2026 (UTC)

Source review

• No concerns about source reliability, formatting or layout

This table lists 6 random passages from throughout the article (25.0% of 24 total passages). These passages contain 12 inline citations (30.0% of 40 in the article). Reference numbers refer to this revision. Generated with the Veracity user script. MCE89 (talk) 12:50, 8 September 2026 (UTC)

Reference #	Letter	Source	Archive	Status	Notes
While writing a short story involving squirrels, Allen became curious about how many squirrels were in his neighborhood of Inman Park, Atlanta.
2	b	vox.com	web.archive.org	Y
4	a	smithsonianmag.com		Y
3	b	atlantamagazine.com		Y
The team divided Inman Park into 151 hectares, where in April 2012 volunteers visited each hectare twice a day for a month.
3	d	atlantamagazine.com		Y
2	c	vox.com	web.archive.org	Y
At the time, there was no official count of the park's squirrel population.
6	b	nytimes.com		Y
Volunteer squirrel-counters reported information beyond the squirrel's geographic location and time, including demographics (fur color, apparent age), their behavior (making noises, eating, climbing), and their reaction to humans.
4	e	smithsonianmag.com		Y
6	c	nytimes.com		Y
7	b	bloomberg.com		Y
As of 2024[update], the squirrel census project has been on hiatus since March 2021.
2	f	vox.com	web.archive.org	Y
The Inman Park census data was used in a wildlife epidemiology paper on West Nile virus by researchers at Emory University.
5	d	popsci.com		Y
1	e	nytimes.com		Y

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.