A Guelph, Ont., high school student who turned her family’s fascination with squirrels into an experiment is heading to a national science fair competition.
“It has honestly been surreal and crazy because this project just started as a Grade 10 culminating assignment,” 15-year-old Kira Egete, who attends Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic High School, told CBC News.
At the end of this month, Kira will be in Edmonton along with 400 other students at the Canada-Wide Science Fair, a week-long event.
Students can win scholarships and awards while meeting like-minded peers.
“I’m so excited,” said Kira, who designed a controlled backyard experiment to study how squirrels respond to different colours.
She said her family’s love of squirrels began after they immigrated to Canada in 2014.
“Back in Serbia, there really aren’t many squirrels … my family absolutely loves squirrels and we’ve been obsessed with them.”
A look at the world in squirrels’ eyes
That long-standing fascination grew into a research question: How do squirrels see the world?
Kira learned that squirrels, like dogs, have dichromatic vision, referring to the inability to distinguish between certain colours.
Dogs can tell the difference between blue and yellow, but not between red and green, meaning they have yellow-blue dichromatic vision.
“I thought, ‘Why don’t squirrels have the same thing?'” Kira said. “My hypothesis was that squirrels would be more attracted to blue and yellow just like dogs.”
Kira’s interest in squirrel vision stems from her family’s obsession with the animal. (Emma Breton/CBC)
Backyard experiment, colour by colour
For her experiment, Kira transformed her backyard into a controlled testing ground.
She set up five identical pots, each a different colour (red, yellow, green, blue or grey), carefully controlling for brightness using a phone-based lux meter app. Each pot was coated with a sealant to eliminate scent differences and one peanut was placed in each.
To avoid bias, the pot order was randomized across trials. A GoPro camera recorded the activity as squirrels interacted with the setup over repeated one-hour sessions.
Kira’s study took two months to complete. She conducted 64 trials, but only used 50 in her study after the first 14 failed to attract any squirrels. (Emma Breton/CBC)
Across 50 valid trials, Kira analyzed the order in which squirrels approached each colour.
The results surprised her.
“My hypothesis was wrong. Squirrels preferred red and yellow, and least preferred grey.”
She said the findings suggest squirrels may be drawn more to warmer colours rather than cooler tones like blue and green, challenging her original assumption based on dog vision studies.
Kira believes her results could have practical uses.
“In wildlife rehabilitation centres, red and yellow objects could be used to encourage engagement and activity, or if you want squirrels to avoid bird feeders, you could use a grey one.”
After completing the study, Kira entered the project in her school’s science fair.
‘She just ran with it’
Alana Harrison, the library technician who runs the school’s fair, praised Kira’s efforts.
“She came to me quite early on saying she was fascinated by squirrels,” said Harrison. “From there, she just ran with it.”
A GoPro camera captured the activity as squirrels interacted with the setup during repeated one-hour sessions. (Submitted by Kira Egete)
From the school’s fair, which had 70 students participants, Kira and five others were selected to advance to the Waterloo-Wellington Science and Engineering Fair. That’s where Kira secured a place at the Canada-Wide Science Fair.
Kira said she was nervous going into the regional fair but quickly began to suspect she was making an impression.
“There were judges coming to me, and asking questions and saying that I did a good job. That was a great feeling.”
Part of her motivation for entering the competition was to see more of Canada, especially the mountains.
“I’ve only been in Ontario in Canada. I’m excited just to experience something new.”
Harrison said she’s looking forward to seeing what Kira does at the Edmonton competition.
“I couldn’t be more proud. It’s just so wonderful because obviously she has a lot of passion for her project, and to see her have this level of success is just incredible.”
The teen’s charitable side
Beyond the science fair project, Kira is already well known in her school community.
“She is an absolute gift to the school,” said Harrison. “She runs a charity called Hugs and Hand, she’s on the robotics team, she runs track, she’s involved in everything she can be.”
Alana Harrison, the library technician who runs the Guelph school’s science fair, says she’s enjoyed seeing how Kira has developed her science savvy. (Emma Breton/CBC)
Kira said her work on the project has increased her interest in science, though she’s still deciding her future path.
“I do plan to pursue something in STEM, potentially engineering or maybe medicine,” she said, referring to science, technology, engineering and math. “One day, I hope to end up in entrepreneurship.”
For now, she’s focused on Edmonton and the squirrels that started it all.
After two months of studying the animals, she remains in awe of them.
“They’re still adorable creatures.”