Trip report: Spanish adventures in ecotoxicology

The caracal samples finally arrived on the 10th May 2019! I was so relieved when Pablo (the fantastic lab technician at IREC) handed me the box. We immediately unpacked the samples and set to testing the  clean-up methods we'd been practicing on three caracal samples. Looking at the results of these tests we found the …

Urban Caracal Project goes to Spain!

Last year my supervisors and I worked hard on securing funding to get my samples tested for exposure to environmental pollutants. In June 2018 we were delighted to hear we got it! The Table Mountain Fund granted us the full funding for the testing... However, I still needed to arrange my own personal funding in …

Starting that stable isotope stuff (finally)

I'm excited to say that I've managed to get going on my third chapter's data collection! We're planning to use stable isotope analysis (SIA) to explore longer-term, integrative trends in Cape Peninsula caracal feeding ecology. Essentially what this means for me is that I'm spending a lot of time with minuscule pieces of hair (again). …

URBIO Conference 2018

Last week I attended the 10th International URBIO conference that was conveniently held in Woodstock, Cape Town. My supervisors Laurel Serieys and Justin O'Riain were also in attendance, and it was great to have such a strong iCWild contingent there. URBIO (International Network for Urban Biodiversity and Design) describe themselves as "an open worldwide network …

The big ‘upgrade’

It looks like I'll be working on urban caracals for a bit longer! As my project developed my supervisors and I made the decision, about 6 months ago, that it had the scope to be upgraded to a PhD. I knew I wanted to do my doctorate but I needed to decide whether I wanted …