How the seminars have affected my future career

At first I found writing blogs strange and wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. After a bit of practice it was a lot easier and even became a bit fun. It gave me a chance to practice summarising lectures highlighting the important information. The first blog I wrote was on mammal biology which was interesting, I then did one on beavers which was my favourite, I never knew much about beavers and this talk really interested me and I felt like I could never put my pen down. There was a range of other blogs which all gave different aspects of biology but conservation related lectures were always the best. I liked how most of these lectures raised awareness for nature projects many of us were probably unaware of. I am glad I took this module as I would never of attended these seminars if not for the blogs and I learnt a lot from them.

How these seminars have affected my future career

Although I already knew I was interested in conservation being my favourite module in the 3 years of university, these talks has made my passion grow. I have realised the importance of conservation and just how many projects there are. Also I have realised it is not only carrying out the projects that is important but also raising awareness.  I feel producing a CV and practicing interview skills will be very helpful in the future, as well as gaining new contacts.

New contacts

Although I haven’t been in touch with any of the talk givers yet, I am planning on volunteering helping with beaver reintroduction and also applied for a job at Chester zoo.

Module components

• Assessment centre workshop – this was helpful as it allowed us to practice our interview skills, build confidence and know what to expect in real interviews.
• Career café – was good as it gave us insight in to what previous graduates are up to, it showed what me can achieve and they gave us advise
• CV – producing a CV was useful as we were shown what makes an impressive CV and how to get employers interest. I have already sent mine off to a few places.
• Dragons den – was fun, I was nervous about this component but turned out to be fun. It helped build confidence, make friends and improve presentation skills.
• Business plan – this component I didn’t enjoy so much but did find useful.

Overall

Overall I really liked this module, I think going to lectures not part of the other modules was good as you were learning a variety of things. Writing blogs was a new fun way of completing work and didn’t feel so much a chore. I also feel producing a CV and practicing interview skills will be very helpful to my future.

 

Chat moss project

This lecture was the talk I was least looking forward to, doing a zoology degree I thought this talk would be purely about plants and not be very exciting. I was wrong, Elspeth Ingleby  from Lancashire wildlife trust showed us just how important bogs are, and why they are far from boring.

Bogs are mires, which accumulate dead plants that do not fully decompose, moss covers them  resulting in a carbon dioxide sink. They formed after the last ice age, when glaciers retreated exposing vegetation.

Why are bog so important?

• They store carbon dioxide very efficiently, this is important as global warming is a huge threat that is on everybody’s mind recently. Storing these gases harmful to the ozone layer is crucial, but the loss of peat land will release the stored gases.
• They provide habitat to rare plant species, that thrive in acidic waters. Sphagnum is one of the few plants that has adapted an able to survive in such environments.
• They also absorb water, reducing flood risk, which is important especially with the threat of the icecaps melting.
• They can preserve bodies, the bogs have properties allowing bodies and trees to be preserved miraculously. From this we can learn about our ancestor history, as a body was discovered from 4,000 years ago. The body is so well preserved that hairs are still visible.

These facts prove that bogs need to be restored and maintained. Active chat moss sites include Astley moss, Cadishead moss and little woolden moss. The restoration of peat lands is very expensive and relies heavily on volunteers.  I feel it is a very important project and would like to help spread the word and even help in this project.

 

Business plan

One of the components of the bio enterprise module was to write an essay on why a business plan would be helpful to our career. This exercise was helpful as it got us to look at the elements involved in a business plan, which before the exercise i was un-aware of. It gave me the chance to see how I would go about setting up my own business. Although I doubt I will ever set up my own business, I still feel this was helpful to my career as I gained advice on what characteristics employers want in employees when I was researching different aspects of the business plan.

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The hitch-hiker’s guide to urban forestry

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Combating the snake bite epidemic in India

African bush meat – ‘Don’t ban it, fix it’

The illegal bush meat trade in Africa is a serious issue for the wildlife of the continent. The bush meat trade is the hunting of wild animals for human consumption. Peter Lindsey gave an informative if slightly gory presentation. Although the pictures were not the nicest things to look at they definitely gave the shock factor, which is necessary in helping put a stop to the bush meat trade.

Hunters use bows and guns to kill animals but the main source of catching them is by using snares. Snares are the devils work, a simple cheap method but very effective at catching anything that happens to walk into them.

Peter said one quote which stuck me ‘Don’t ban it, fix it’, I think this is an important statement due to the fact that locals in Africa have low income and struggle for food. For some locals the bush meat is needed to survive so banning hunting would be problematic. The local Africans do need to be educated on making the game sustainable in order to be beneficial to both parties. Although I don’t feel there should be a complete stop to the bush meat trade, I do think the severity of it needs to be addressed.

The reason the bush meat trade is so successful is due to the insufficient funding for conservation, it could be reduced by

• Anti-poaching patrols
• Increasing the punishments
• Assigning land to local people
• Creating sustainable game

I came away from this talk with a real hope for change. Seeing animals strung up in snares is enough to make anyone angry and I don’t understand how hunters do it even for a big profit. I hope enough publicity is created in order to put a stop to non-local hunters and help to educate locals in farming.

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Should the grey squirrels be culled?

This talk was given by Craig Shuttleworth, who happens to have set up the red squirrel charity and be best pals with prince Charles. 

although squirrels are super cute they are also very destructive, chewing through wires and causing fires. Due to this as well as having an impact on birds, bark stripping and nest predation, 69% of the population want grey squirrels to be controlled. 

house damage

Introduced in 1876, the grey squirrels are heavier and stockier than the reds, often out competing them for food and space. This is seen mainly in the young red squirrels, who struggle to survive in the presence of greys. Grey squirrels struggle to live in conifer forests as the seeds are too small to sustain the nutrients needed for their bigger body, this however does not stop them trying. This is very problematic for the reds as greys carry squirrel pox: causing legions on the red squirrels until death 3 weeks after infection. It is thought that if the greys continue to spread north it could cause an epidemic. 

squirrel pox

In 1998 there was 40 red squirrels and 3000-4000 grey squirrels, so a project was set up to eradicate greys, after a few years although not all the greys were gone, none of them carried the virus. After a few unsuccessful attempts at reintroducing the red squirrels, vets found the cause to be adenovirus, which could of been spread by mice. Because of this the project changed their protocol and housed animals for a short time before release making the reintroduction more successful. 

 vs 

Since Anglesey is a peninsula and not an island greys can still get access to reds, this needs to be stopped as the red population has proven to be boosted when there are no greys present.

I think it is an important project and everyone should get involved in thinking of ways to stop the grey squirrel from crossing the menai straights. This talk actually surprised me, I have never been one for allowing any animals to be killed but Craig made a persuading talk and i have changed my views. 

Writing a CV
One component of our module was to write a CV, I found this very helpful as we had lectures on how to write a good CV. We learnt how to advertise ourselves and put ourselves out there without writing a long boring CV. The lectures in particular were helpful but actually writing the CV and cover letter was a good exercise to as I feel more prepared to write one when I finish university now. We also wrote a cover letter, which I have never done before so felt it was good practice.

Dragons den

I attended the dragons den session, which was actually a lot better than I thought it would be. After being separated into groups we learnt the key aspects of a business plan which included: vision, outcome, expenses ect. We then had to come up with an idea to transform the Brambell museum. Our group decided on expanding the museum to also have live animals which I thought would be nice, using the reputation of the university it would probably be a very good and educational idea. We had to make a 20 second video which was pretty fun working out how to use the little amount of time. We then had to present our ideas to the dragons which was a nice element to the day especially as I usually get nervous with presentations, I felt quite comfortable doing this one. It has gave me a lot to think about and was a good day overall.