This is a re-post of an interview I did with Terra Inconita after winning wildlife blogger of the year. On 31 December 2018, Gianluca Cerullo’s story The rare jungle cat that thrives in degraded rainforests, featuring a bag of his own poo-for-research, won the 2018 Wildlife Blogger of the Year competition […]
How do you provide people with fast access to medical supplies and services when they live in remote rural regions, sometimes more than a day’s walk from the nearest doctor? One answer is with drones. During my time in Ranomafana in Madagascar, I was lucky enough to speak with some […]
In 1900, David Hilbert outlined 23 major mathematical problems he thought were crucial to solve in the coming century. His list provided a guiding beacon for focusing the efforts and brainpower of many mathematicians, such that by the turn of the 21st century, the majority of the problems had been […]
Another year, another species of orangutan, and another bunch of complete pillocks put in charge of biodiversity hotspots (pillock 1, pillock 2). Here are some of my favourite (and worst) moments of 2018, in no particular order. I supposed the biggest thing was graduating from Sheffield Uni with a Master’s […]
Today it was announced that I won Wildlife Blogger of the Year, 2018! This post is a repost from the great folks at Terra Inconita, who ran the competition. You can read my winning entry here. Bag of poo delivers conservation message, winning Wildlife Blogger of the Year 31 December, 2018 – A conservationist’s account of fieldwork […]
Remember the good old days of secondary school biology? You used to just grab a quadrat, throw it on the floor and count how many ladybirds were inside. A lot of conservation research isn’t all that different from this. Simple is good. Quadrats are pretty. But when your study organism […]
Are there certain qualities that we can adopt to increase our odds of slowing extinctions?
Mammal camera traps are sexy and butterfly nets make you feel like a Victorian scientist. But nothing beats the gruesome realities of catching dung beetles. Dung beetles are just about one of the most important and cost-effective animals you can sample, whether you’re doing so to test the impacts of […]
My nostrils has already been assaulted by months of trekking through the Bornean rainforest with an Aldi bag-for-life full of my own poo. Such is the price of conducting research on dung beetles. The one bonus? I thought I had become immunised to bad smells. But the putrid stench of […]
On what environmental problem will you be able to make the biggest difference?