Previous Adventures

Between School and University in 2002/3 I took a 'gap year' and worked for three months at an animal wildlife rehabilitation centre in South Africa. There I cared for the resident animals (including handling ex-falconry birds of prey) and assisted with animal rescues, including a 2 month old lion cub. For the rest of the year I travelled, working as part of the crew on a tallship (3 mast schooner) for 2 weeks and then backpacking around Europe.

I've bounced around the globe - usually being paid in food and accommodation. Below are examples of what I have done - if you'd like any more information please get in touch or click on the links.

I've been to Honduras twice with Operation Wallacea conducting live animal trapping, which included my BSc dissertation on Hummingbirds and their floral preferences.

In 2008 I went on an elite 2 week course in the Italian and French alps with the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT) discovering both traditional and modern taxonomic techniques, such as specimen collection, bioacoustics and GIS/GPS. After this I was a research assistant working on co-operative breeding and delayed dispersal in the Ant-eating chat (Myrmecocichla formicivora) near Kimberley, South Africa.

I undertook another assitantship in 2009 in the Rocky Mountains in Canada investigating the evolutionary ecology of the Columbian Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus columbianus). In April 2010 I returned as a field research co-ordinator running the project translocating squirrels between 2 elevation sites and organising the team, logistics and budget. As part of this we also took metabolic rate measurements using doubly labelled water.

At the end of 2009 and start of 2010 I was in Tasmania, Australia assisting Dr Michael Griesser in trying to set up a project with a view to investigating breeding differences in 3 species of thornbill and the factors which may contribute to this, potentially shedding some light of the phenomenon of co-operative breeding and delayed dispersal.

Nov. 2010 to Aug. 2011 I was a project manager at Charles Darwin University working on a project to investigate the impact of feral cats on small mammal populations in the Northern Territory.

From Aug. 2011 myself and my partner worked and travelled in New Zealand, mainly in Fox Glacier where we were given the opportunity to work at Lake Matheson Cafe and to manage a local motel.

2013 - 2015 I was a PhD student working in the Willis Bat lab in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Unfortunately I had to leave due to personal reasons and return to the UK. The lab do some amazing work tracking bats both at maternity roosts in the summer and hibernation in the winter using pit tags (microchips like those used in domestic pets). They are also at the forefront of White nose syndrome research which a fungal disease severely affecting bat populations across North America.

My last role brought me to Scotland in 2016 as the local Red Squirrel Conservation Officer covering the areas of Argyll, the Trossachs and Stirlingshire for the nationwide project Saving Scotland's Red Squirrels (scottishsquirrels.org.uk). I continue to volunteer for the project and spread the word about reporting squirrel sightings and also help to verify those sightings before they go up on the website map.