Lucy & Other Animals

I'm chuffed to have my recent MSc water vole research mentioned in the Association of Drainage Authorities magazine the ADA Gazette !  I hope that water voles (the most rapidly declining native British mammal) in other parts of the UK can benefit from my Fenland research regarding their preference for coir roll revetments over other riparian management strategies. Cheers to Cliff Carson (Environmental Officer of the Middle Level Commissioners and MSc thesis supervisor) for writing the article and to the Association of Drainage Authorities for including it. The article (right hand side) printed on page 23 in the ADA Gazette Spring 2018 Issue. To discover more about my research findings, check out the summary report which is downloadable from the Middle Level Commissioners website .

There's a fantastic new BBC series out called Animals With Cameras  which is well worth a watch. The series, narrated by Gordon Buchanan was first aired on Thursday evening. Episode one follows three species of animal: the meerkat ( Suricata suricatta ), the chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes ), and the magellanic penguin ( Spheniscus magellanicus ) via the attachment of body cameras. The footage gained from these cameras reveals an extraordinary insight into the secret underground, tree canopy and underwater lives of these animals. Having worked as a six-month Field Research Assistant at the Kalahari Meerkat Project (where the meerkat footage was filmed), it's incredible to finally see the meerkats' underground world, consisting of a labyrinth of tunnels. You can watch the first episode of the series on the BBC iPlayer  here . For those of you who may not be able to view the episode abroad, or if you are reading this after the iPlayer episode has expired, you can wa

The purpose of this post is to raise awareness about otter road casualties and illegal or unintended trapping. Last week (9th January) saw the tragic death of a beautiful Eurasian otter ( Lutra lutra ). It was on my way to the Middle Level Commissioners (MLC) offices in March (Cambridgeshire) that I spotted the corpse on the side of a busy main road and I pulled over to take a look. Once I had reached the otter, I realised that it was probably a relatively young animal, since it wasn't much bigger than a domestic cat. The hind feet of the otter corpse (09/01/2018). With a pang of sadness (otters are one of my favourite animals), I saw that it had a head wound, most likely from a collision with a car. The pool of blood in which the otter lay was relatively fresh and very little smell issued from the body, indicating that it had not been there long, probably around 48 hours. A closer inspection of the animal revealed that its abdomen was slightly swollen and tha

I'm always looking to improve my field identification skills, and expand my knowledge of British mammals. Last month (Saturday 18th November) my boyfriend Joe and I went along to the Mammal Society's first annual harvest mouse day at Doxey Marshes in Stafford. Doxey Marshes is a nature reserve characterised by rough grassland and wetland habitats, managed by the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. At first glance, this reserve seemed an unlikely place for secretive mammals such as harvest mice ( Micromys minutus ), otters ( Lutra lutra ) and water shrews ( Neomys fodiens ) to inhabit since it's located right on the urban fringe, yet all three species manage to persist there. Doxey Marshes Nature Reserve in Stafford. The training course was fully booked and we were guided by Derek Crawley, the founder and chair of the Staffordshire Mammal Group since 1999. Derek was immensely knowledgable about British mammals, having been a Staffordshire Mammal Recorder since 1998, as well

Where to begin...  It's been four years since I last wrote a blog post and I feel that it's about time that I started with a clean slate. Those that used to follow my blog back in 2012/2013 may recall my pre-university Kalahari* Desert adventures. I spent six months working at the Kalahari* Meerkat Project assisting with the day-to-day recording of meerkat behaviour and life history data. Since then I have completed a Bachelor's degree in Zoology at Swansea University and a Master's degree in Conservation Science at Imperial College London. It was the search for a suitable MSc thesis project which drew me to the Fens* of Cambridgeshire; where I'm now employed as Assistant to the Environmental Officer of the Middle Level Commissioners.         *Some technical terms, geographical locations and other explanatory information           are listed in a glossary at the foot of the page. For my thesis project, I researched the effectiveness of coir roll revetment* inst