RAUK - Archived Forum - Posts by jopedder:

I am currently assisting in a population estimate of slow worms on a site marked for development in Bishop's Stortford, we have nearly finished the neccessary visits for our data on the population, but we know that the reptiles will have bred by the time we perform the relocation of the animals.  I need to find out how productive this species is, so that we can modify our data accordingly.  Any ideas?

Many thanks

Jo 

hello again all,

I have another surveying question for all: what is the best time of day to check tins? 

Actually I know this is the wrong question as what I actually need to know is what body temperatures the common reps need to get to in order to become active. 

I have recently purchased a thermometer to check air temperatures to tell when to stop checking tins in a morning and to see what time the temp drops to below 20 in the afternoon, but all this is usuless without knowing what temp the reps need.  some not entirely scientific sources suggest 30c for common lizard, 12-20 for grass snake and 8-16 for adder, any idea if these are correct or what temp slow worms require?

sorry for the spelling mistakes but my time on the library computer is nearly up and this machine will switchitself off!

many thanks

Jo

Thanks for your information, although the few afternoon checks ive done have been later than your graph suggests is optimal, the morning survey times do match what I've been up to, but I've not been turning up reps.  A lot of the sites I've been asked to survey are completely unsuitable habitats, but there are a few gems amongst them that 'should' have reptiles in.

Maybe I'll have better luck next week! 

Hi again all,

I thought I'd make use of the collective years of wisdom that this forum represents and quiz you about the relative merits of studying for a PhD/masters. 

I graduated from Leeds Uni a few years ago with a good degree in zoology.  Since then I have been looking for work in a variety of ecology/conservation areas and have slowly whittled this down to focus on gaining full time work as a consultant ecologist/zoologist- I decided I'd had enough of university life, that working in conservation could be too narrowly focused (and underpaid) and that consultancy work would bring me a variety of projects and a descent wage and generally lead to a happy life!

However, I have found it hard to get full time employment in consulting and had figured a few months ago that if I didn't have a permanent job by winter I'd start to look at masters courses to improve my employability. This time has now come but I am starting to rethink my position: the consultancy I am temping for at the moment has almost completely put me off the industry, the cowboys that they are, and whenever I think of a research project I'd like to get stuck into at uni I come up with things that to do properly I'd like to spend a few years on (i.e. do a PhD.)  

Academia is starting to appeal to me again, but I get very negative reports from friends who have just finished theirs.

Are all consultancies run by idiots who are pro-profit and anti-good science?

Is a masters necessary to become a consultant - or would another years worth of temping doing field work count as the equivalent? 

I guess the thing I really love doing is field work, which is why a PhD appeals as I can spend the next three year with a guaranteed job that involves field work, I donÆt have to sell my soul to the highways authority and I might just have fun doing it!

Any thoughts on your own experience of breaking into and working for consultancies and also on general life after PhD would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, a standing at a fork in the road, Jo

I am off on a business trip to Qatar in a couple of weeks and am trying to locate a qatar specific species lists or field guides to reptiles, mammals and birds.  Any ideas anyone, I have found plenty of resources for neighouring Saudi, but am not sure of differences in distributions so these lists may be of no use?

Hello, I am about to stop commuting to London, bliss, which means that I will soon have a lot of free time on my hands to do all those things I dream of doing whilst sat staring out of the window on 2h commute. 

I am particularly interested in joining a herp group and assisting surveys etc. I live righton on the border of Beds and Bucks, does anyone know if either of these groups are more active than the other?

Thanks,

Jo

Hello All,

I have recently visited a site that I intend to survey for slowworm and grass snake this year.  However I realise that this is going to be a lot more difficult then usual; firstly I only expect there to be a fairly small population, but the largest problem is that the site is full of refugia.  The site is brown field with many large piles of rubble that have mostly vegetated; it has several piles of car tyres and lots of fly tipping (metal fridges etc).  With such an abundance of ænaturalÆ refugia, it will be impossible to tempt reptiles onto targeted tins, but also any reptiles present could bask just about anywhere on site.

Would the most appropriate thing be to not put out any more refugia and just carefully search the whole site, with an increased number of visits?

Any suggestions appreciated.

Here is a snap from a trip to Portugal last year, I wondered if anyone could ID it.  The body length was about 3-5 inches (didn't ever see whole tail.) and the back a dark mottled green.  What has thrown me, and my guide books, is the bright orange throat.  The habitat is cork oak hills in the centre of the counry. sorry the photo is not great, but will try agian in a couple of months.

Thanks Jeroen,

The Psammodromus also matches the two yello back stripes that I didn't mention, but are just visible in my picture. however I seem to remember that the lizard was very smooth scaled, unlike the picture in your link - this could just be my memory though - also there don't apear to be any blue flank markings on my specimin.   Could this be a regional or seasonal variation?

Thanks again,

Thanks Jeroen and Wolfgang,

The location in Portugal is  pretty much as central as you can get (drawing a cross from all 4 corners), about 30 mins outside of Tomar.  Unfortunately I took a series of photos as I stalked closer to the Lizard, but this was the nearest I got before it scarpered.

Jo

I did an experiment measuring daphnia heart rates when I was at school - I was looking at effects of poisons (caffiene, alchohol and nicotine) on heart rates.  If this is what you are doing as well take note that at higher concentrations nicotine appeared to kill the daphnia and they had no heart beat, so on these runs I discarded the daphnia into a seperate container, only to find out that they had just been stunned and there hearts started working agoin after a few minutes! - this meant that I had to re-do some of the runs taking this into account.

Also remember that as you examine the daphnia under a microscope they will heat from the observation light, increasing heart rate.

Good Luck!

Jo

Sorry Katie,

It was about 8 years ago that I did the experiment, and I no longer have my notes.  However my mum works in a school prep lab, so I am forwarding your posts onto her to see if she can help.

The 1% will be the proportion of caffeine in water, i.e. 99 ml water, 1ml caffeine, therefore the total volume of water is irrelevant.

Jo

Hi,

I was wondering what the function of toads warts are? Are they anything to do with increasing surface area (and why?), trapping moisture, or are the warts secretory glands?

Thanks,

Jo

OK got the little fella enlarged:

Had to re-size the picture so that it would fit in the window, I think i may have made him a bit stout in the process.

URL for unadulterated enlarged picture:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v300/jopedder/portlizscan2.jpg

I have been reading this thread with, but slightly off topic, you refer to the HSI for gcn - where is the HSI published, i've had a trawl through Google and have found lots of references to it, but not the index itself.

Regards,

Jo