Professor West on BU Research today!
Catherine West hadn’t planned on studying ancient rodents.
When West, a research assistant professor in Boston University’s archaeology department, arrived on the small island of Chirikof in the Gulf of Alaska, she planned to study how the island’s bird population had changed over time. More specifically, West wanted to see what native Alaskans’ food waste could tell her about the island’s bird population, and vice versa. She started to excavate the island’s middens (the trash dumps of ancient people) to see what the animal remains in there could tell her. She kept bringing up bones from birds, whales, seals, and, surprisingly, a lot of ground squirrels. To read full article http://www.bu.edu/research/articles/arctic-ground-squirrels-invasive-species-native-species/