Zoological Society visit to the Natural History Museum, London

Our group on the steps of the museum's main entrance.
(Photo: Paul Ramsay)

Today we visited the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London, for a behind-the-scenes look at the scientific work being carried out there. The trip was organized by Jo Briffitt of Plymouth University's Zoological Society.

Despite bringing a group of 46 to the museum, we were taken through the doors closed to the public, into the basements and along the corridors, to the scientific collection, where the real work is done. We also had the chance to catch up with four of our graduates, now working at the NHM, three in paid jobs there and a fourth getting experience on an internship.

Conservation Biology Field Course, Mexico, Days 14-15

A Green Iguana (Iguana iguana) at the edge of the Río Hondo.
(Photo: Wai Yi)

This is the last blog entry for the 2013 Mexico field course. Our last full day in Mexico was free to do whatever we wanted. Some went on a boat trip along the Río Hondo, which forms the border between Mexico and Belize. Others went to relax next to Laguna Bacalar and Cenote Azul. "Read on" for photos.

Conservation Biology Field Course, Mexico, Days 11-13

A tray of insect specimens in ECOSUR's zoology museum
in Chetumal. (Photo: Wai Yi)

We headed back to the forest on Day 11 for some experiments on ant-plant relationships at the INIFAP research station, San Felipe Bacalar.

On Day 12, we visited ECOSUR in Chetumal and visited their zoology museum for an in-depth tour of a working research museum. We were also shown the important forest bee work that is carried out by ECOSUR staff--not just the ecological research, but also conservation and bee-keeping advice.

The students prepared for and sat an end-of-field-course test on Day 13. Click on "Read more" for some more details, including photos.

Conservation Biology Field Course, Mexico, Days 8-10

The Conservation Biology group 2013 at the Mayan
ruins of Dzibanché. (Photo: Miguel Franco)

Days 8-10 involved a trip to the coast, a boat trip through the mangroves of Laguna Guerrero and Chetumal Bay, and a day at the Mayan ruins of Dzibanché.

Once a small fishing village, Mahahual is now a destination for cruise ships. Some days three ships might be moored at once, with potentially 12,000 passengers looking for something to do. Other days, the village is more or less deserted. During this year's visit, we saw the ghost town version.

Conservation Biology Field Course, Mexico, Days 4-7

The next installment of the field course covers our trip south to Chetumal and our rainforest survey activities. Read more for photos and an idea of what we did.

Outdoor ID Workshops with OPAL

Today is officially the most depressing day of the year, so it is a good time to get outside! If you feel like getting out and about and learning some new ID skills at the same time, then OPAL is running two sessions over the next couple of weeks just so you can do this! Spaces are limited so email me to book a place: alison.smith@plymouth.ac.uk.

Winter woodland surveys and ID workshops:

Wednesday 30^th January 1-4pm – Soil invertebrate ID & surveys: We’ll be carrying out the national OPAL Soil and Earthworm Survey and doing some deadwood surveys. There are 26 species of earthworm in Britain, so plenty to find out about! We’ll also cover some deadwood invertebrate ID. 

Wednesday 6^th February 1-4pm – Winter plant ID workshop, Ham Woods: We’ll be doing a mix of ID for winter trees/twigs, lower plants (ferns and mosses) and herbaceous species. We will tie this in with a survey to record the distribution of ancient woodland plants and invasive species. This will be helping with some preliminary data collection for a research project at Ham Woods, to help the local ‘Friends of Ham Woods’ community group assess the impacts of different management regimes on woodland ground flora. We will be looking for volunteers to help with the surveys for this work in the future, so if you are interested in this then come along to this session.

Natural History Competition for Schools:

OPAL is also running a competition for local schools to encourage them to explore their local environment, and we need some enthusiastic volunteers to help! Primary and Secondary schools are being encouraged to enter any projects they have worked on to do with local wildlife and nature (e.g. creating or restoring a habitat, monitoring biodiversity at their school). They will be invited to an exhibition at the University in May, to showcase their project to University scientists. We want to make this a great day for all the schools that come along, and will be running activities in Drake’s Place Gardens on campus and in Labplus. Volunteers will be needed to accompany school groups around the activities, to engage with the children/young people, and help inspire them about science and nature. Drop me an email if you'd like to help out. 

Conservation Biology Field Course, Days 1-3

We met up in Cancún airport on 28 December and travelled the short distance to Puerto Morelos and a hotel on the beach.

View from our hotel in Puerto Morelos.
(Photo: Wai Yi)

 

Beach at Puerto Morelos.
(Photo: Wai Yi)

A refreshing swim at the end of a day
in the forest. (Photo: Paul Ramsay)

 

We spent two days in the Dr Alfredo Barrera Botanical Gardens in Puerto Morelos, identifying trees and spotting animals. Here are some of our photos...

Conservation Biology field course, Mexico 2013

We have just returned from a field course to the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, part of our BSc Conservation Biology degree. Normally, we would post details of activities directly from Mexico, but the Internet connections were not up to the job this year. Instead, I will post them here over the next week or so.

Group photo at the start of the field course.

Leopard study featured in journal podcast

Every few months, the Journal of Zoology selects a few papers published in the journal and interviews the authors for a podcast. The latest podcast features one of our students, Ross Pitman, talking about his study of leopard predation (featured in an earlier blog entry). The paper was published in the journal in November 2012, and was based on his final-year project for the BSc Conservation Biology course. Ross co-wrote the paper with Lourens Swanepoel (University of Pretoria) and me. You can listen to the podcast here. The interview with Ross runs from about 27 minutes and 30 seconds into the podcast, and lasts around 11 minutes.

Careers Advice Conference by the British Ecological Society

The British Ecological Society is holding a one-day ecological careers conference on the 18th February at Charles Darwin House in London. There will be a chance to hear speakers on their research careers based in Universities and NGOS, those who have developed careers in communications, including education, journalism and publishing. You’ll hear about the relationship between science and policy from the perspective of the scientists and the policy makers. There will be guidance and training on career development and management including social media, CV writing and getting the best out of volunteer roles/internships.

As well as the career stories, you get to meet those people who’ve successfully made it through the next steps and have secured opportunities such as Masters, PhD, Post Docs and graduate employment. There is even some time set aside at the end of the day for those people waiting for the 7.00pm off peak trains to practice their networking skills with many of the speakers in attendance.

There will be representatives from terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecology, animal and plant ecologists, those at the start of their career and those that have made it to the top!

Click here for more info and booking. It costs £10.
  

Placement report: UK Wolf Conservation Trust

Sophie Da Costa and Nuka (young male)

by Sophie Da Costa

As soon as I learned I could complete a work placement as part of my degree, I only wanted to go to one place: the UK Wolf Conservation Trust. I have always been interested in wolves and their conservation, so was thrilled to be able to work there voluntarily for 6 months!

There are 12 grey wolves (Canis lupus) living at the Trust of varying ages and personalities. Most of the wolves are socialised – this means they have lost their natural instinctive fear of humans, which is the result of them being taken away from their mothers as young cubs and being hand-reared by the keepers. The main advantage of this is that the wolves can be walked on chain leads outside the enclosure. It also means they can meet members of the public, who get the opportunity to see the wolves up close and stroke them if they wish.

OPAL Bryophyte Sessions

Learn to identify common woodland bryophytes (mosses) and try out novel identification keys, as part of an OPAL research study. No prior experience needed. There will also be an opportunity to learn to recognise species in the field, with a walk around the reservoir.

Bryophytes play a major ecological role in a range of habitats, particularly woodlands, and are therefore a key feature of the National Vegetation Classification. They are also a fascinating and often overlooked group of plants and Britain is particularly important for its bryophyte diversity, as it has more than half the species in the European flora.

Sessions are free and held on campus. Places are limited so you are advised to book quickly. To book a session, please email OPAL Community Scientist Alison Smith with your preferred date (options below) and full name to alison.smith@plymouth.ac.uk

 

1.30 - 4.30 pm, Sat 1^st Dec

9.00 am - 12.00 noon, Mon 3^rd Dec

10.00 am - 1 pm, Tues 11^th Dec

 

Salsa Invertebraxa: a graphic novel starring insects

Yesterday I travelled to the Natural History Museum in London with Duncan Allen to meet the author of an entomological graphic novel.  Duncan is an ex Conservation Biology student who now runs his own environmental education business (Pupa Education) as well as sitting on the council of the Royal Entomological Society. It was in his role as council member that he had been contacted by the author of a graphic novel that has an exclusive cast of insects and other invertebrates.  This was a chance that two die-hard entomologists could not miss so we were up at 5 am and on the train to meet Paul Phippen (the author) under the tail of the dinosaur in the main entrance of the Natural History Museum at 10.30 am. 

Life after Uni. What is it like to work as a biologist?

In just a few years you will be looking for work in the wider world.  While some jobs may appeal to you, do you really know what they entail? These talks give an insight into what’s involved in some of the various jobs that biologist can do. We have three lined up so far, with more to come in the new year:

Working in zoos

Conservation with Natural England

Plankton biology at SAFOS

To come we have:

Nature conservation with city councils

Natural history curators in city museums

Life in a field centre

Life as a university technician

Hospital pathology labs

 

Nepenthes and scientific truth

By Miguel Franco

We all love David Attenborough’s programmes. An investigation by Philip Jones (http://www.prkjonesphotography.com/#! ), a masters student at Oxford University who graduated in 2011, found that natural history programmes in general, and David Attenborough’s in particular, have played a crucial role in students opting for degrees in ecology and biodiversity conservation.  The subject of yesterday’s news (http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/20273855) was about what David Attenborough has learned from a life devoted to natural history documentaries. I do not need to emphasize his amazing contribution. What I wish to refer to is a flawed, currently peddled view on the nature of scientific truth with which the news concludes.

My Azorean bullfinch picture

I've been going on the Azores field course for six years now, and although I've seen plenty of the rare Azorean bullfinches, I've never had a recognisable picture (only a silhouette which could have been anything). This year I was determined to get something better, and here it is - hardly BBC wildlife standard, but definitely an Azorean bullfinch.

Pyrrhula murina

What we got up to in Induction week 2012



It's a worm



Mixing up mustard

Smell that soil!

Every year in Induction week we go on a trip to Mt Edgcumbe country park just across the River Tamar from Plymouth, in Cornwall. Previously the Biologicaol Sciences group have gone on a fungal foray, but this year we decided to do a couple of more structured activities based on OPAL (OPen-Air Laboratories) materials. We spent a bit of time digging holes in the grass (with permission!) doing an earthworm survey, with variable success (there were a lot of rocks where we chose to dig), and also looking a lichens and sycamore leaf spot as indicators of pollution (or lack of pollution). Here are a few pictures.



Time for a rest



Lab/field week trip to the Eden Project



The Tropical biome





Carica papaya (paw paw)



First year Biological Sciences and Environmental Biology students managed to miss the showers during lab/field week at the Eden Project. We spent the morning trying to find particular plants in the two biomes (with limited success!), and then the afternoon having a go at some scientific drawing, and exploring the environmental sustainability exhibits in the Core building. A good day out as usual - every time I go there I spot a plant I've heard of but never seen before.



Chlorophyll sculpture?



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Volunteering for British Red Squirrel

By Rosie Ball, BSc Conservation Biology student

Maybe the first wild red squirrel kit born in
Devon this century, on the Escot Estate.

For the past five months I have been volunteering for British Red Squirrel (BRS), who alongside Cornwall Red Squirrel Project (CRSP) are staging a national conference on red squirrel conservation in April next year. The last national conference was in 1997 held by the People's Trust for Endangered Species at the Zoological Society of London. Since then there have been successes and setback for the red squirrel in the UK.

Initially my role as a volunteer was not specified, only that I was to help create and organise a national conference. As I attended further committee meetings at Escot Estate (a country estate open to the public with extensive outdoor nature education facilities and a walk-through red squirrel enclosure), my role in organising this event developed further. All other committee members are volunteers, but all also hold full time jobs. Since my student commitments over the summer were minimal in comparison, I became the overall coordinator for the conference.

A load of bullocks (or how some animals can upset your work)

By Dan Moule, BSc Conservation Biology student

Dan Moule, doing
something completely
different!

In July and August of this summer, two other stage two biology students and I conducted a light trap study on the North Wyke farm platform of the Rothamsted Research Institute, near Okehampton, North Devon. Here's an account of our adventures...

The aim of the study was to measure the catches of moths and other night flying invertebrates over time in relation to three different light bulb sizes. Conducted at three sites on the farm platform between the hours of midnight and 4am on alternate nights (weather permitting), we spent six weeks alone in the dark with only the moths, flies and other assorted Dartmoor wildlife for company. If the commotion of the nocturnal wildlife, freezing cold (only a slight exaggeration) or biting midges weren’t enough to keep us awake, our beepers were primed and ready to stir us every fifteen minutes to change our sample jars.