Comments

http://bsu0af.wordpress.com/2014/02/28/building-a-one-planet-future-by-stuart-bond-gift-manager-28-february-2014/comment-page-1/#comment-40

Sadly, I couldn’t make this seminar but by reading your blog I found in interesting and informative. I particularly like your comment at the end “the planet cannot be made perfect but it can be made better”. I feel like that comment is true and that everyone can make it better. Just one thing though… What is GMO?

http://bsue53.wordpress.com/2014/03/16/the-hitchhikers-guide-yo-urban-forestry/comment-page-1/#comment-10

Even though I didn’t go to this seminar, I have to agree with the comment above that I enjoyed reading your blog and with a sample layout I wanted to keep reading. I liked that the variety of picture broke up the text to keep the reader interested.
I have to agree that I haven’t given much thought either to the effects urban forestry even though I live in the city. However after reading your blog, I can say that I have thought about it more on the benefits of the wealth of wildlife surrounding and the benefits for the environment.

http://psuabd.wordpress.com/2013/10/31/understanding-adaptive-radiation-using-population-geonomics/comment-page-1/#comment-3

I found that your blog was well written and easy to read allowing the images and the table to break up the text. However, I felt that there should have been more. I wanted to read more on the species of cichlid in Lake Malawi and their breeding methods. Maybe, you could have included some related papers such as

–         http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bij.12105/abstract?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false

–         http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00005175

–         http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/29/1/195.short

 

http://ebbbsue19.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/280314-plant-conservation-in-uk.html?showComment=1399036487340#c8851431220153728023

This comment wouldn’t allow me to post it via my word press user name, for some unknown reason; therefore it has been name Anonymous.

I have to agree that the word plant sends me to the land of boring. Even though I went to this seminar, I feel that you have done the talk justice. You have made it easy to read and to understand with hyper link within the text to help the reader understand that bit more. Good job.

COURSE IMPACT ASSESSMENT

“How the Seminars have influenced my Career Plans“

At the start of the module, I thought that this module was going to be pointless as I already knew how to do an interview and I already had a CV. However, I was proven wrong since I didn’t know how to write a cover letter and didn’t have a clue of how to write a business plan or what it entails.

Over all I am very happy I took this module. The careers cafe was a good experience as I feel hearing about the career paths of others helps with my confidence that I can do the same. The take home message that I got was that even though you do a degree in a particular area doesn’t mean you have to keep your option closed.

I have to say that by doing the blogs encouraged me to go to the seminars. I went to a few more but I have blogged the ones that I thought that I could relate to my possible future career. The workshops have reinforced my confidence that I can interview well and have good pieces of writing.

The Business Plan

The final part of the bio-enterprise and employability module is gaining knowledge to write the process of a business plan from Chris Walker.

This led to an assignment which entailed explaining each element of a business plan and how knowledge of each element may help me in my future career. 

At first, I wondered how useful I would find this assignment, as I don’t think that I want to go into business. However, I now know and understand that every company involves business of some type; therefore I now can fully be grateful for the benefits that this course component can offer to me.

Hopefully my future plans become a reality, allowing me to be a research scientist of some description or an aquarist within the next few years. If this becomes a reality then I would be writing or assisting in writing proposals for research project asking for funding. I feel that the knowledge of how to write a business plan will be a vital and transferable skill, which I can apply to apply to almost any future employment.

Illegal hunting and the bush meat trade: an emerging crisis in African savannah – 26th March 2014

Peter Lindsey works for Panthera (http://www.panthera.org/ ). He moved from studying wild dogs to the issue of bush meat.

The forest biomass is highly important and the crisis has been recognized as it holds a significant component of the economies.

It is illegal and especially in Protected Areas. The commonest method used is wire snares (86.6% for studies). 

Dogs (64.3%)

Bow and arrows (50.0%)

The reason for this is that it is cheap and easy to produce, hard to detect in the bush and it is extremely effective however, it is wasteful has it is not selective on a particular species, therefore young and mothers are being caught. It also causes the animal to have a slow and painful death.

Less than 1400 animals are found rotted in wire snares over the last 5 years. If there is no control on the animal selection then species will eventually some species will end up dying out.

Illegal hunting occurs are on a continuum for the local trade of bush meat and to sell on to Paris and London.

The ecological impacts are significant impact on part species wild range; it is mainly the prey population that are affected.

100 – 150,000 wire snares of bush meat have been pulled up out of the bush since the project has started.

The factors that are most effected the bush meat trade are the fact that there under – funding of protected areas, inadequate anti pouching, weak penal, low priory and there is a poor relationship between the protected areas and the people that live in it.

I felt that this talk was very informative and I didn’t realise that the bush meat trade was such a huge issue and I’m shock to hear that the number of wire snares is that much and increasing and that YouTube has a how to make a wire snare. This proves that it is the most common method since the information is so easy to assess.

For more information

• http://www.bushmeat.org/bushmeat_and_wildlife_trade/what_is_the_bushmeat_crisis
• http://www.sciencemag.org/content/306/5699/1180.short
• http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118297469.ch10/summary

Snakebites in India – 25th March 2014

Gerry Martin has been catching snakes since he can remember and now Gerry is the owner of The Gerry Martin Project in India.

There were 40 – 50,000 people lost from snake bites in 2011. Most of these bites were on poor people that lose the function in limbs or needed limbs removing from cause of infection and tissue lose from the venom.

There are the “big” 4 species which includes the Russell’s viper (Daboia russelii), the common krait (Bungarus caeruleus), saw – scaled viper (Echis carinatus) and the spectacled cobra (Naja naja). However, there are a number of additional species, of about 10, that are working their way onto the list. There is a current issue with the some local anomalies as there are different symptoms of a bite.

The Russell’s viper (Daboia russelii), http://www.arkive.org/russells-viper/vipera-russellii/  is the biggest problem as a bite causes a large amount of damage and it is very expensive to treat due to the massive variation in the venom and colours as they are ambush predators.

Saw – scaled viper (Echis carinatus) are locally abundant however, there are 2 sub species with different venom.

The spectacled cobra (Naja naja) is common throughout India. It thrives around humans, because of this fact it has become east to treat in India as 75% of call out for snake bites are from the spectacled cobra.  http://naturechronicles.com/gallery/v/Scales/Cobra_Spectacled+4589_fcw.jpg.html

The common krait (Bungarus caeruleus), is very common in rural areas. Bites from this snake normally occur at night while people are sleeping. The venom is different from the others above, as the venom from this species causes a really bad stomach ache with rapid progression of symptoms. The bite is easy to treat if the person gets to hospital in time.

As I have mentioned before there are many other species of snake that will bite, some including the pit vipers (Hypnale hypnale and protobothrops sp.), kraits (Sind Krait (Bungarus sindanus) and Bungarus sp.), monocled cobra (Naja kaouthia) and some sea snakes but to be bitten by one is rare.

Culling snakes is not a solution to the snake bite problem. This is due to the fact that the snakes eat the rats that damage an estimated 1/3 of aquaculture to rats each year.

The future is…

• Understanding the local scenarios to be more effective
• To determine to work out the species distribution
• Find the venom variation
• Therefore find more anti venoms

…But the main important point is to education and awareness for the public!! This is carried out by training with the forest department and the medical staff, giving presentations and local communities spreading the word. I think that the main point of education and awareness brings it home. I never knew that there were so many people lost from snake bites. I felt that the talk was very informative and it has been an eye opener.

You can get involved by doing some volunteering work out in India.

For more information visit the following;

• http://gerrymartin.in/
• http://gerrymartin.in/volunteers/
• http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CD4QFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.apiindia.org%2Fmedicine_update_2013%2Fchap94.pdf&ei=7Zk5U-egLsqS7Qam4oGoAQ&usg=AFQjCNEQ5I1BHc18CeinXbdkDtjpmY3C0g&bvm=bv.63808443,d.ZGU
• http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=7&ved=0CFoQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.toxinology.org%2Fresources%2Fprotocols%2FWHO-SEARO%2520Snakebite%2520Guidelines%25202010%2520copy.pdf&ei=FJo5U67QOJDT7Abd34GIBA&usg=AFQjCNFLIFS2CMu0azAvn_3gpptNifHCrA&bvm=bv.63808443,d.ZGU

Comments for this month

Pine Marten Conservation – reintroducing a native flag stone species or introducing a pest?

Chester Zoos Mission by Mark Pilgrim

Dragons Den – 17th February 2014

This Dragon’s Den workshop, that went through each step of the process for making your own business. After, the group was given examples of either turning something for example the Brambell museum into a business or expanding Treborth Gardens to attract the attention of the public.

The group that I was in choose to do the expansion of Treborth Gardens. The group suggested that there should be a honey farm within the gardens and sell the honey within a gift shop and café. Welsh produced honey! As a group, we worked out how much each bee hive costs and worked out the amount of hives that Treborth Gardens could hold.

I feel that it was a worthwhile workshop, I now have a better understanding of what is required for a business and I feel that I can use this knowledge to help write the business plan assessment. However,  I felt that there could have been more breaks.

Landscape scale grey squirrel control – Are they lessons for the UK?

Craig Shuttlewood started at the Red Squirrel Trust (http://rsst.org.uk/ ) in 2008, researching in the protection and to increase the numbers of the red squirrels.

Everyone knows that the grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is a pest at the best of times but now there is action being taken against them. The grey squirrel has a huge impact to the environment such as stripping bark from trees, nest predation, damaging properties  by eating the way into roofs and loafs and chewing on the beams and wiring causing fires. The grey squirrel are affecting the juvenile red squirrels more as they are eating the same food and living in the same habitats. However, the main reason is that the grey squirrels are affecting the lives of the red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) via the squirrel poxes virus.

“69% of survey says YES to the management of the Grey squirrel”

Squirrel poxes virus is carried by the grey squirrels to the red squirrels; however it ONLY affects the red squirrels. Once a squirrel has caught the infection then it will take a maximum of 3 weeks before the squirrel dies. It is 15 times more rapid if a population of red squirrels are exposed to the virus.

For more information on the Squirrel poxes virus;

• http://www.redorbit.com/news/international/1113079492/red-squirrels-being-devastated-by-squirrelpox-022514/
• http://northernredsquirrels.org.uk/pox.htm
• http://www.doeni.gov.uk/niea/biodiversity/northern_ireland_squirrel_forum/squirrel-pox-and-other-squirrel-diseases.htm
• http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=13&ved=0CHgQFjAM&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rsne.org.uk%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2FSquirrelpox%2520virus%2520for%2520vets.pdf&ei=-kggU6bIJpPN7AaV2YHYBA&usg=AFQjCNHmhOz4bpXD7eiAEwGCwm5DHXSieQ&bvm=bv.62788935,d.ZGU&cad=rja

The grey squirrel is under Section 9 – which status that the grey squirrel is a pest and can be kill at any time of the year.  There was a project to eradicate the grey squirrel. When this project started, they found out that there were people who owned private land were already killing the grey squirrel as a pest control.

It was noted that as numbers of grey declined, then so did the number off outbreak of the Squirrel poxes virus in the red squirrels.

There is NOTHING that has been published before saying that by killing the grey squirrels that the red squirrels will come back!

However, there has been a reintroduction in Newborough Forest (see image), as there is only a certain particular tree that the red squirrels love!

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/website/recreation.nsf/LUWebDocsByKey/WalesIsleofAngleseyNoForestNewborough

http://www.savenewboroughforest.org.uk/

The red squirrels are on the road to recovery, for more information;

http://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/how-you-can-help/appeals-and-campaigns/red-squirrels-the-road-to-recovery/

Comments for this month

http://bsu0af.wordpress.com/2014/01/30/creating-a-curiculum-vitae-and-cover-letter/comment-page-1/#comment-25

I really liked this post. It is informative and easy to read.

I wish you good luck for you interview. I know someone that has been with the British Antarctic Survey for over 2 years now and she loves it.

 

http://jstops.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/return-of-the-beaver-welsh-beaver-project/

Just by reading the post you can tell that you are enthusiastic and passionate about the reintroduction of beavers. I like the fact that you reference within the text and put them at the end so people can read more on the topic. I really enjoyed the flow of your post and the quotes.  Keep it up.

Creating your CV and Cover Letter

For this assignment, I had to find an eye-catching job of a Marine Aquarist and Animal Trainer position at Blue Planet Aquarium and tailor my CV and cover letter for the job. Due to some good detailed guidance on the content order and how long each section should be; I have now adapted my CV which is now up to date and have based it on practical skills and the work experience that I have done. I can now do the same for a cover letter, which I didn’t know how to set out and compose either.

I believe that being able to write a good CV and cover letter is important as it may set you apart from others in a job or even an interview basics.