Update 2/4: Meet the MSc researchers
Q&A
Hello! We are Lucy Chivers and Liv Pearson. We are currently undertaking the ‘Strange materials’ research (see yesterday’s Lab Note) for our MSc in Global Wildlife Health & Conservation at the University of Bristol, supervised by Fay. We have spent the last two months with the lemurs at Wild Place, investigating how they respond to stimuli provided on A-frames.
What is your research background?
Lucy: I have a Bachelor’s degree in Animal Science from the University of Nottingham, and my dissertation investigated the social structure of African elephants. I have interned at Shaldon Wildlife Trust, a small UK zoo, where I conducted a short research study on enrichment for red ruffed lemurs.
Liv: I am fairly new to research! For my Bachelors project at the University of Exeter, I did some behavioural observation studies on field crickets from video footage from Spain, looking at their Chronotypes and activity patterns. As luck would have it, this makes Bootcamp research far easier because we have been collecting a lot of video footage which needs coding after collection. You can’t trust the lemurs not to leap on the camera tripods and change where the cameras are pointing – we spend a lot of time during trials just protecting the cameras!
Why did you want to get involved in Lemur Bootcamp?
Lucy: I believe captive breeding programmes serve as a contribution to in situ conservation projects and not as a stand-alone goal. We need to know whether we're maintaining vital instinctive survival behaviours throughout our breeding programmes. So our guys have the best chance of survival when it's their turn!
Liv: Lemur Bootcamp seemed like a great opportunity to do a project local to Bristol which was linked to species reintroduction. Lemurs are one of my favourite animals and I’d always wanted to get into reintroduction work or research, but was not sure where to start.
Has anything funny/exciting happened during your research?
Lucy: Mostly incidents with some of the juvenile ring-tails, where they have jumped on and commandeered our camera equipment!
Liv: One hot day there was a combine harvester in a field next to Wild Place, churning up hay which began to float across the sky. The lemurs freaked out and started shouting at the particles in the sky! Another day, a guinea fowl found its way into the walkthrough enclosure and the lemurs had a great time chasing him about. They are definitely in tune with changes in their environment, and I think they enjoy new experiences of any kind.
What are your career aspirations, after your MSc?
Lucy: I would love to become a researcher for wildlife documentaries so we can spread the word to greater audiences! Similarly, I would love to get involved coordinating in situ conservation projects. Especially over in Madagascar where it's important for local communities to be as excited about conservation of the animals in their natural habitat as we are in western cultures!
Liv: Hopefully something to do with either rehabilitation or reintroduction of wildlife. I am really kind to try out the practical side of reintroductions. Or something to do with wildlife photography*
*Both students have provided some fantastic images of their research trials – thanks guys!
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