Breeding hope for Wildcats

Wildcat numbers have been in steep decline due to cross breeding with feral cats, their habitat being destroyed and diseases. The number is now only believed to be around 100 pure bred individuals left in the wild to date.

The lottery fund in September donated money for a new conservation programme to aid with the neutering of feral cats and reducing risks to the rare breed. There has also become a captive breeding programme set up in which the first kittens have been born at Highland Wildlife Park at Kincraig. These are the first 2 individuals to be born since the Wildcat Conservation Action Plan was created and it is thought that the Highland Wildlife Park will be one of the main breeding centers to breed wildcats in Scotland with the hope that, individuals will be released into the wild if the breeding programme is successful.

The Action Plan consists of 3 big ideas: Identify 5 areas where wildcats can be conserved, reduce risks in those 5 protected areas and then the captive breeding programme along with ecological research to aid the knowledge of the cats. This hopeful action plan is aiming to of halted decline within 6 years giving the Scottish Wildcat a fighting chance against extinction.

To read more about the kittens, the Action Plan and to learn more about the species see the links below

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-24613855

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-24208759

http://www.rzss.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases/press-release?urlName=more-puuurr-fect-highland-kittens

http://www.snh.org.uk/pdfs/publications/wildlife/wildcatconservationactionplan.pdf

http://www.scottishwildcats.co.uk/

Photography - Week 1,2 & 3

This year I have taken a Photography Elective so that I could learn more about photography, different skills and techniques along with getting to have fun taking more pictures and experimenting of how to use my camera.

The first project we were given was a 'self portrait' although your face didnt have to be in it. I decided to take photographs of me dancing as dance was such a huge part of my life when I was younger. I hadn't stepped on a stage for 2 years so getting to put my shoes back on was definitely liberating even if it was just to take some pictures.

The second project was to tell a story with a photograph, which was certainly harder. When I was at home at the weekend though i dragged my six year old brother out into the garden and photographed him. The result was the picture below.

The third project was to photograph something funny. This was really hard. I originally wanted to get a picture of my cat scooping out his cat buscuits from the go cat box but sadly there was no such luck. It ended up though that our house fridge broke and I captured my flat mate with the door that had fallen. People laughed so at least it worked, I can hardly say that its a 'good' picture though. 3 week of photography down and so far I feel like I really need to get Photoshop! 

 

Decorating Doors

Sophia is quite forgetful to say the least and we are constantly wondering where she is.
For this exact reason I decided to create her a fun Calendar to put on her door with little funny memos, like her Birthday, Christmas, Exams, Terms and other such things. Around this there I placed photos of all of us and a few sketches and magazine cut outs.
I got the free calender print outs for Sophia's calendar from http://heidiswapp.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&path=59&product_id=80 a great website if you are in to smashbooking as well!
As we are not at uni for July and August i only have printed out 10 months which I then stuck to card.

For Rachael's door I went down the theme of Nature. Rach LOVES frogs and has lots of butterflies in her room so I decided that i would create origami butterflies and frogs using some online tutorials on youtube and http://www.origami-instructions.com/origami-yoshizawa-butterfly.html . I also covered hers in some butterfly sketches I did and some photos.

Hannahs was easy to decide what to do as she LOVES pigs and teeth, bizarre combination but never the less I went about creating her a movable jaw. I found what I was looking for on http://skulladay.blogspot.co.uk/ where i downloaded the template, stuck in onto card and then scored and cut according to the idea. This Skull template would also be good on a larger scale to use at halloween as you could attach string and potentially move it without the need to touch creating a very scary idea! Along with this I printed of photos of piglets covered in paint and wellington boots, you can find them on google!

Kasturi studies energy engineering and has a labrador back in India so, luckily glamour awhile ago had a photo shoot and interview with Diana Kruger in which she was photographed with a beautiful labrador.  I also hand drew a big periodic table just because who doesn't want to learn their elements.

The boys doors were a little different but I found funny quotes to stick on theirs along with embarassing pictures from last year

Zoology Field Course to Dale Fort

Being stuck out in the middle of no where with no phone reception when in bed and wifi that crashes when any more than 3 people wish to log on is hardly what I would have considered fun when we were told that we, Leeds 2nd Year Zoologists, had a compulsory field course to a small town called Dale in Wales at least a 20 minute drive from civilization and if I'm honest I still cant say that the majority of the trip was a barrel of laughs either. After arriving after a 8 hour coach journey and being told we had a 20 minute walk to the Fort as buses were unable to drive there the trip wasn't of to the best start.

I found a baby crab

 The first day we had lecturer Ian Hope. I LOVED the stuff we got to do with him, a lot of people didn't seem as bothered but I got to create life!. I personally don't think I could have been any more excited as when I looked down that microscope for 4 days in a row seeing my fertilised egg change into a small embryo and then to see the larvae hatch has got to be one of the most remarkable experiences! The sperm of sea squirts is also very unusual in that its tail is over 6 times longer than the body and is a tear drop shape for the main body where the bottom of the tear is connected to the tail.

Alison Dunn was our tutor for the second day where we went down to the shore and examined multiple rockpools for the variation of wildlife with in them. Once we returned to the lab we had a mad dash of a write up to complete followed by a poster. Later on we did get to have some fun where we played a quiz and got to learn all about different shore wildlife that we had collected during the day
On the 3rd day we had Sarah Zylinski. We went to the shore again but investigated whether the size of the trapdoor is ratio to the height of the spire and if its larger when close to the tide. We must have measured at least 120 purple topshells and our hypothesis was proved false. After a report writing we all got to have a nice movie night before crashing into bed.

Our Experiment

The last two days were taken over with Group projects, ours was "What are dog whelks choice of prey?" After we had collected MANY topshells, winkles, limpets and topshells we went about placing the prey in the corners and the dog whelk in the middle and monitoring them every hour to see which the dog whelk had moved towards. Sadly we didn't get any significant results which is very frustrating after you have stayed up till 3 am monitoring the stupid things!! The report writing was the ridiculous part as we were in such a rush to get it finished that we made silly mistakes but hey ho.

TO MUCH REPORT WRITING

The last day we were there everyone had to give presentations on what they had discovered from their mini research projects. Following this everyone headed to the pub and we had a brilliant bonding night for all Zoology students, learning things that I never thought I would about my fellow course friends which is definitely not going to leave my mind any time soon.

But it was all smiles in the end 

So just as we finished the presentations with a rap, I will finish this blog post with the wonderful song that we wrote talking about our project using the Price of Bel-air and silly Dog Whelks!

The Galapagos Islands- Underwater Fun

Mum and Me

Finally getting the time to upload my underwater pictures from the most amazing trip EVER on my computer seemed to take far to long but now I finally have. Going through them has made me want to return so much more. There is NOTHING like entering the sea and playing with sea lions, watching a pacific green sea turtle glide underneath you and when you emerge to sea a marine iguana feeding on the seaweed covered rocks.

Sealion tumbling anyone?

If there is one thing I can advise to any nature lover. Go! Go to where ever it is you have dreamed of, my mum made mine come true and that was to visit the Galapagos Islands. Its the most beautiful natural beauty I have seen in my short 20 years and nothing can make you feel so close to nature as to when you are engulfed and surrounded in its beauty!

Just playing

Mother getting to grips with snorkling

The pressure isnt good down there!

SHARK alert

ITS SO CUTE!

Very Tiny Sea Lion Pup

Its a Penguin!

Marine Iguana

Just having a bite to eat

Turtle Close up! 

Me and a Sea Lion

The Galapagos Islands- Day Seven & Eight

Santa Cruz and back to Ecuador
Heading back to Ecuador meant that we had to be up at 6 am but first we went looking for pacific green sea turtles at Black Turtle Cove. It was such a magical place and so unbelievably tranquil. The turtles sleep in the red mangroves at night and leave in the morning so we got to see lots of turtles. They are so beautiful. We also got to see some Rays and blue Boobies! After returning to the boat we had to finish packing. The flight left at 10.45 back to Ecuador. The flight took 3 and a half hour as had to stop on the way before returning the Hilton. Even though I was no longer on a boat I was still rocking for another 2 days which was very bizarre. Our last night was quite relaxed, after a drink at the bar we went for a buffet dinner.

The Last Day
Banks in Equador seem to be difficult to extract money out. Instead of going to the 0'0'' point on the equator we wandered all around the markets and down little streets to the banking district where we had coffee at a lovely cafe in the sun before returning to the hotel and then leaving for the airport.

The trip truly was magical and I would love to go back some time in the future preferably when I have a diving certificate, as although the birds are beautiful, the marine life is so diverse that not getting to see it all again would be a shame!

The Galapagos Islands- Day Four, Five & Six

Sante Fa and South Plaza
Sleeping on a boat for the first time was certainly an experience and definitely hard to sleep as when we started moving i woke up. After an early breakfast and a wet landing on the beach at Sante Fa we started walking around the island. We saw a large group of Galapagos Hawks waiting to feed on a dead sealion baby which was sad but nature is nature after all. A sealion then came right up to sniff me which was crazy how small and close it was. On the walk we saw our first type of land iguanas.
Once back on the boat we went for our first snorkel! I got to see a very young sealion which i go really close to and a shark along with the huge array of fish. As we swam towards the shore we found our selves playing with a group of sealions which was so cool. We then got taken to snorkel at aonther part of the bay where we got to see a pacific green turtle sleeping at the bottom of the ocean. After topping up my tan whilst the boat moved we then arrived at South Plazas where we got to see a different type of land iguana which are remarkably different. We also got to see a tropic bird, swallow tail gull, more great frigate birds and sheerwaters. We even got to see blue footed boobies. Boobies are named from the spanish word meanig clown (another interesting fact). Plazas was definitely the most beautiful island I got to experience. It really is like a place from a movie. Once back on the boat we saw another shark and a turtle. After dinner we got to look at the stars which you have no concept of just how many there really are.

Genovesa
Genovesa is so very different to the Islands we saw yesterday. Our wet landing took us straight onto the beach where we saw a great frigate bird feeding its chick. The chicks were so fluffy. We also saw lots of red footed booby chicks. As we were sat having a talk about the wildlife nature came very close. An adult frigate bird picked a chick that wasnt its own from its nest, flew really high and just dropped the baby. The baby chick was screaming and even when it landed it was still alive as it had landed on sand. The hardest thing was that we were not aloud to put the chick back near the nest.  Its such a clear example of the selfish gene though as what the evil bird did wasn't for the best of the species, just for the own individual bird to pass on its genes. As we kept walking we then witnessed another horrible act of the smaller chick being pushed out of the nest because the parents lay 2 eggs, each a week apart and the second is just an insurance baby so the younger chick just starves to death. It's a horrible idea but as I came to realise during my trip, nature isn't actually that nice when it comes down to the nitty gritty!
We then returned to the boat for some snorkeling and got to see another turtle. Sadly the water wasn't very clear the first time we went snorkeling. Our second snorkel was a lot better as got to see fur sealions and I got to see a angel fish like the one from the book you read when your a kid!We then got to see lots of masked boobies  which look brilliant and the very allusive short eared owl. It was a very mixed day as there was alot of sadness but also alot of happiness as there were so many new born chicks!

Santiago & Rubida
The travel to the island was incredibly choppy, alot of people seemed to be sick, somehow though I managed to sleep through some of it which I felt was a minor miracle. After breakfast we headed over to Santiago to the larva platforms which are only 130 years old. They were incredible, how the pattern of larva formed called rope into so many amazing patterns. The colours through the rock showed all the different minerals which was so beautiful. After coming back to the boat we then went snorkeling and managed to get so close to a pacific green sea turtle which was incredible, I also got to see marine iguanas when they were in the water. When we got back into the zodiac we found the penguins bobbing around, it was amazing to see real penguins in their natural habitat!
We then traveled to Rubida which had a read beach and a black lagoon but sadly there were no flamingos. The galapagos humming birds were very interesting, they like drink water out of the lid as they have learnt that people have water, not only are they cute, but also very clever! After a nice walk and some incredible views we came back to the beach and went snorkeling with sea lions. They are such gentle and playful animals to get to share the water with.
Once back on board the boat moved on again to where we are visiting on the last morning. The trip flew by and if I could, I would go back in a instant, even if that did mean I would have to spend a week experiencing no sleep and bumpy seas!