Author: Benjamin Collier

Departure from Paignton

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Baby King Colobus

 

So I’ve finally reached the end of my stay here in Paignton – and I know its cliché to say – but the time really did fly past! I really can’t believe its been a whole five weeks already. During my internship I learnt so much more than I thought I would about zoological research and now feel really confident in a lot of new skills . In this last week here I’ve simply continued the work I was doing at the half-way point, only now with complete independence.

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The cutest and most amazing animal ever, the Emperor Tamarin

 

Looking back on my time as a whole, I have plenty of great memories and experiences. Everybody I met during my internship was amazingly supportive and lovely. What else would you expect from a group of biologists, eh? If I’m being completely honest though, I think I’m going to miss the primates more than anything – the Emperor Tamarins and Goeldis in particular. They’ve both now cemented themselves on my highly coveted list of favourite animals. An honourable mention also goes to the King Colobus family (and their new baby girl!). Maybe I’ll visit Paignton again in the years to come to see her as she grows up.

It wasn’t all easy though, I definitely will not be missing staring at vaguely Diana monkey shaped objects in the distance and trying to figure out whether they’re grooming or scratching, nor will I miss attempting to follow the five miniscule Pygmy Marmosets as they jet around their enclosure. It will also be nice to sleep in past 7am when I get back too…

Face-min

 

Overall, I would just like to thank everyone at the Whitley Wildilife Conservation Trust for being so welcoming, as well as Lewis from Monkey Heights and the entire Ape Centre team for putting up with me bothering them every morning and endlessly asking “wait, what vegetable is this?” as I weighed up food. Personal thanks also go to Dr. Joanna Newbolt for all her help in my first few days as well as Louise for training me in my first two weeks. Thanks also go to the media team at the zoo for accepting some of my photographs for publishing on their webpages in the near future (I was hoping they’d be posted before this blog but unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case!). I would, of course, also like to thank the entire charity insights team for awarding me this amazing opputunity because, without the funding and support I received, I would not have been able to relocate from London to Paignton and gain this invaluable experience.

Reaching the halfway point

Now passing the halfway point of my time here at Paignton zoo, I’ve switched to becoming almost completely independent in the work I’m doing. From the start, the general idea was that I would have two weeks of training with the project leader, followed by two/ three  weeks of unsupervised work. The overall project itself is now in its third phase. Now that the ‘before’ and ‘during’ data has been collected over the year for the primate’s probiotic treatment it’s time to analyse some of the possible lasting health benefits in the ‘after’ stage. Excitingly, early data analysis is looking good already. For my remaining time here I’ll be continuing to assemble behavioural, faecal and food intake data ready for the end of the project.

With this new independence I’ve had to now create my own timetable, somehow mixing and matching 20 half-hour slots of behavioural observation over each week (I’ve given myself an early finish on Friday, naturally). I also now have to organise myself in the mornings as I weigh out the morning and afternoon food for the day, prepare desiccation pots, collect leftover food from the enclosure and complete faecal scoring. The process can be confusing at times, especially remembering what food is kept where and timing everything correctly in order to catch the food between it being prepared and given out.  Encouragingly, I feel like I’m slowly becoming more confident in the work I’m doing here and also learning a lot. My behavioural observation sessions in particular are becoming much easier as I now know what to expect from each of the individual primates, allowing me to record their behaviour consistently and accurately.

 

Small Peacock

 

I’ve also now been told that my research group has been able to find a post-graduate student to replace me when I leave. This came as really good news as it means that I will no longer need to squish in 3 species worth of work per week in order to finish the project before having to return to London. I’m looking forward to meeting this new student, despite being a little nervous about training them on procedures I’ve only just completely come to grips with myself…

 

Lemur

 

I mentioned in my first blog post how I wanted to practice some photography whilst I’m here. I was also originally planning to record some footage and interviews for a short documentary video but one broken shotgun microphone later the plan had to be scrapped. However, through my supervisor, I have managed to get in contact with the Zoo’s media department and have emailed them a few images for them to hopefully use on their website, so here’s hoping that goes well! As for the near future, I’m hoping to get some even better snaps of the adorable Goeldi monkeys and Emperor Tamarins as I return to working within their enclosures each morning next week.

 

Small gatekeeper

 

Small berries

 

I’m looking forward to the final stretch of my time here and will be sad to go when the time comes. The entirety of my experience so far has been absolutely wonderful and a great opportunity for me to gain experience whilst enjoying some of the great treasures the south west of England has to offer.

 

 

Touchdown in Paignton

Yesterday, following a fairly long (but mostly hassle-free) trip from my home in South London to the sunny seaside town of Paignton, I woke up early to start my internship training. The town, as per its namesake, is home to the Paignton Zoo & Environmental park as well as the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust. Established in 1959, the Trust operates in locations all over the UK, working for both domestic and international conservation goals. My two days of training was incredibly hectic and involved meeting a lot of new people alongside being told about a myriad of different aspects to the research project I will be joining in on.

 

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A quick photograph I snuck in between collecting foodstuff and faecal scoring in the enclosure with the Emperor tamarins… I’m hoping to learn a lot more about wildlife photography while I’m here

 

To sum up what I’ll be doing as simply as I can:

The project I’m working on was established around a year ago and aims to investigate the possible effects of two different probiotics on the general wellbeing of a number of primate species held at the zoo. The question being answered is essentially as follows: can the known health benefits of these microorganisms in humans also be identified for other types of non-human primates (NHPs)? In the event that positive results are found, future breeding/ conservations programmes could begin to confidently incorporate probiotics into the set diets of captive NHPs in order to improve their general wellbeing as well as simply survivorship. The specific aspect of this project I will be taking over will involve making up and weighing different feeds for ten species of primates each morning. Then, at the start of the next day, I will collect leftover food to calculate how much has been eaten before completing faecal scoring to analyse their general health. This will be partnered with extended periods of behavioural observations using ethograms to hopefully make conclusions about if these probiotics could affect the activity of these primates in any meaningful way. Positive results obtained here will revolve around increased levels of activity and feeding behaviours promoted by the presence of these probiotics.

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Guess which one food item here the primates don’t actually eat… believe it or not, it’s the banana
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Stopwatch and record sheet for food measurements

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As complex – and ever-so-slightly overwhelming – as the first two days of training were, I’m very excited to keep getting more and more involved in the project and possibly even get started on some more independent work during downtimes. In addition to research I’m hoping to use the fantastic amount of access I’ll have to these animals to practice some photography and video skills when possible.

As for the near future (later this week), I will be conducting some inter-rater reliability testing. Essentially, I will sit in for long observation periods alongside the project leader and see if our behavioural scoring systems are statistically similar. This should be a good way for me to practice my observational skills under supervision whilst simultaneously completing some important scientific work which will help in the final stages of the study (since these tests can allow conclusions to be made on the accuracy of results collected during observations).

 

Fingers crossed the sun stays out until the weekend!