Wow, does not feel like over 2 months since I wrote anything on here! Almost glad I have no readers because I'd feel guilty... Seeing as lockdown has meant there's not been a whole lot to do, but at the same time I'm trying to work a full time job, walk 750 miles to raise money for the lion charity I used to work for, write funding applications for my PhD and for a science communication charity I'm volunteering for, and also keep up with stuff like conferences and scientific networking, I've somehow not found the time to be inspired into writing about anything that's happened recently!
I think that makes it time to introduce myself to you properly. Ask any of my friends and they'll tell you very simply that I never shut up about Africa, but I like to think there's more to my story than just a girl who went travelling... I'll do some much more detailed blog posts over time, talking about specific individual parts of my time in Africa, but for now I thought I should give you an overview of why I first got into conservation.
My parents are climate and weather scientists, so I grew up always hearing about science. While they weren't the pushy kind that made me feel terrible if I wasn't top of the class, they did encourage me to pursue what I enjoyed. I knew I liked science and was fascinated by everything from the inner workings of cells and molecules up to astronomy and ecosystem interactions, but biology scared me after I discovered that I couldn't really write essays well: I didn't need that in chemistry and physics so my grades never suffered for it, but when my biology essays were returned graded "A* content, awarded D", I got it in my head that I couldn't do biology, and I decided that Physics, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths were the subjects to do at A-level... Taking A-level Biology instead of further maths (stupid considering at that point I wanted to study astrophysics at uni!) was a complete snap decision literally as I was signing the school form.
I dropped physics after one year, continued Biology, and applied for a mixture of Biology and Natural Sciences courses at university. Best snap decision ever.
What changed? A very simple field trip. We went to Swansea for a week to study the ecology of the rocky shore and explore some of the surrounding habitats. We were collecting data predominantly on the movement and population dynamics of snails on the shoreline, but one day we went into the woods and our teachers asked us to list 10 species that we saw. This was when I realised how much my parents had worn off on me, and that identifying the plants, trees, bugs and birds around me actually wasn't all common knowledge after all. After two hours, most only had about 6-8 species on their lists. I had 25 by the time we got over the stile to enter in the first place! We stopped at a small stream to look for birds and while most people sat and complained that they didn't see anything, myself and a couple of friends moved 30m up the path and saw dippers, wagtail, a kingfisher and loads of other small birds and had a fantastic time. It sounds like such a stupid little thing, but that one day really did make me realise just how much I loved being out in nature, how fascinated I was by the natural world, and that actually, maybe I wasn't so bad at biology after all.
Turns out I have no photos from that trip... Here's a pied wagtail I took during lockdown :)
I managed to get the grades I needed to study Natural Sciences at the University of Bath, taking modules from biology, chemistry, maths and environmental science. I did enjoy my course, and certainly I loved the experience, but actually it wasn't the right choice: nothing against Bath, but their Natural Sciences course is not catered towards ecology. At the time I didn't realise how much that was what I wanted, but within the first semester it was clear that whole organism biology was what I really loved. I'm sorry to any microbiologists reading this, but I just can't get excited about stuff so small I can't even see it without a microscope... I can't ever regret going to Bath though: my industrial placement year truly changed my life.
Photo bomb!
I joined the African Lion and Environmental Research Trust (ALERT) to start a yearlong Wildlife and Conservation Research internship in August 2016. When I arrived, I was expecting to be working mostly with lions, carrying out behavioural surveys and helping with their care. I certainly did do plenty of that, and I adored the mornings spent with the lion researchers monitoring the behaviour of the semi-wild pride, but in fact I spent most of my time working on the Mosi-Oa-Tunya Elephant Project. We drove all day around the National Park recording sightings of groups, then returning to the office to identify the individuals we'd seen. By recording who we saw where and with whom, we could start to link up the herds and identify which individuals were most likely to cause trouble by entering the villages in search of food. When I crossed over to the Zimbabwean side of the project, I extended the project so we could monitor both sides of the river, seeing when individuals crossed from one side to the other. This project became my whole life, and there was nothing more exciting to me than getting on the car each morning: somehow, getting up at 5am every day wasn't a struggle when the reason was to go and look for elephants... Every time we went into the park, we didn't know what we would find. I used to hate Sundays because I couldn't work - call me a nerd but I loved every second! If there is one thing in life more exciting than seeing an elephant, it's being able to recognise it and knowing how it is likely to react to you. My favourites were M27, a very grumpy male whose tusks pointed in entirely different directions so you could recognise him a mile off, and F52, a calm tuskless female who just always appeared to be smiling.
I returned to the UK to finish my Bachelors degree, and applied for my Masters. Everything was planned, and I was due to fly to Australia to start my fieldwork on the 16th July 2018, three days after our graduation ceremony (a whole other story to give you a laugh about sometime!). On the 12th July, the day before I graduated, everything changed. With the second best snap decision ever, I took a job back with ALERT, cancelled my flights to Australia (thanks to my birds not breeding so there would be nothing to do out there anyway), and on the 17th July I instead flew back to Zimbabwe to be their new elephant researcher. I couldn't say no to that could I?! I have so many stories from Zim, and Victoria Falls will forever hold a very special place in my heart, but I was only able to stay 5 months because I couldn't really postpone my Masters any longer.
From there, it's recent history. In January 2019 I moved to Penryn to start my Masters by Research at the University of Exeter, and stayed there until March 2020 when lockdown kicked in and I moved back in with my parents, working from home to finish my Masters. In February 2020 I had my first and only PhD interview, in which my soon-to-be supervisor used the words "I know the statistics, I now need a student who knows about elephants" and with that my fate was sealed! Now, as 1st July and my move to the University of York draws closer, I'm getting increasingly excited and terrified of this next step, but if it means I can return to my ele-friends, I'm ready for anything.
Comments
Post a Comment