{"id":312,"date":"2014-11-18T11:57:09","date_gmt":"2014-11-18T11:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wildlifeconservation\/?p=312"},"modified":"2014-11-18T12:06:00","modified_gmt":"2014-11-18T12:06:00","slug":"the-secret-of-getting-ahead-is-getting-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wildlifeconservation\/2014\/11\/18\/the-secret-of-getting-ahead-is-getting-started\/","title":{"rendered":"The secret of getting ahead is getting started!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first six weeks of the course have absolutely flown past, and we\u2019ve already learnt so much! We started off the course at the end of September with an induction at the university\u00a0involving a health and safety talk, a tour of the life sciences building and the discovery of our very own desk space, which we fondly refer to as \u201cthe MRes\u00a0cave\u201d.…<\/span> After a whistle-stop tour of the University we were off to Marwell to meet the conservation biologists and last year’s MRes students. We had an amazing time at the\u00a0induction learning what to expect from the first semester, discussing conservation topics over wine and cheese, not to mention a few surprises!\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Muntjac<\/a>

Muntjac deer (Muntiacus reevesi)<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

After the inductions we settled down into a routine for lectures and tutorials. Our time is evenly split between the university and Marwell; we spend two days at\u00a0Marwell studying wildlife conservation principles and techniques, and two days at the university boosting our statistics skills and learning how to promote ourselves and our research through tutorial sessions. We\u2019ve also enjoyed joining the university’s conservation club\u00a0where we\u00a0discuss conservation papers with other conservationists in the department, and attending seminars at the university to engage in wider on-going research.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all really enjoyed the lectures that we\u2019ve had so far. Highlights have included a guest lecture from Mark Stanley Price (Senior Research Fellow at Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Oxford University) discussing reintroduction projects of the past and present, looking into the future of conservation reintroductions and wilderness; fascinating lectures about the application of population biology to the populations at Marwell (including lots of yummy M & M\u2019s); and lectures highlighting the importance of considering evolution in conservation management both in captivity and in the wild. What we really love about the lectures is that they are so interactive so we spend lots of time discussing a wide range of\u00a0conservation topics in detail.<\/p>\n

\"European<\/a>

European badger (Meles meles)<\/p><\/div>\n

They\u00a0also give us the chance to learn from each other and it’s fascinating hearing about each other\u2019s experiences in the field, especially gaining insights into conservation in other countries. Faisal\u2019s stories about rehabilitating orang-utans, Suren\u2019s insight into conservation in Sri Lanka and Aimee\u2019s practical advice about her time in Botswana are interesting, entertaining and educational in equal parts.<\/p>\n

Another\u00a0fantastic part of this course is the access to specialist equipment. We had great fun putting out our camera traps in the surrounding woodlands of Marwell\u00a0to see what was lurking as part of a deer survey, and even more fun reviewing the photos we captured. There were plenty of horses and dogs, but we also managed to capture some pretty good wildlife snaps! We also tried our hand at radio tracking, with the girls hiding in the woods with the radio signal and the boys with the radio tracking aerial trying to find them.<\/p>\n

More recently we\u2019ve been focusing on the upcoming 10 day field trip to Kenya which\u00a0has involved huge amounts of planning and organisation. With five days to go we\u2019re very excited; we\u2019ve all had our vaccinations; our rucksacks, boots and binoculars are ready to go; and transport to the airport has been finalised.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re sure we\u2019ll have some\u00a0incredible stories to tell and pictures to show when we get back!<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/a>

Red fox (Vulpes vulpes)<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first six weeks of the course have absolutely flown past, and we\u2019ve already learnt so much! We started off the course at the end of September with an induction at the university\u00a0involving a health and safety talk, a tour of the life sciences building and the discovery of our very own desk space, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93749,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wildlifeconservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wildlifeconservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wildlifeconservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wildlifeconservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93749"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wildlifeconservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wildlifeconservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wildlifeconservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions\/331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wildlifeconservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wildlifeconservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wildlifeconservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}