Anna MacDonaldI'm a biologist with interests in genetics, conservation, ecology, invasive species, and wildlife management. Archives
May 2019
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Click here to read the full post at WildlifeSNPits: Today’s post is prompted by a conversation I had with a man I sometimes see at the local dog park. Early one morning a few weeks ago, while our pooches played, we discussed species concepts. This man expressed his frustration at his biologist friends’ constant efforts to describe and delimit species. This obsession with naming and renaming was a mystery to him, and he thinks it a waste of effort. To paraphrase him: so mistakes were made in the past, but surely now we can just all agree to accept the status quo and refrain from splitting and merging and reclassifying any more species. And if we discover something new, well, if two groups of individuals can interbreed then they are the same species and if they can’t interbreed then they are different species, right? Except that it’s not quite that simple. 
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Click here to read the full post at WildlifeSNPits: “Bob said I should call you because it would be good to do some genetics on this mammal population, how long will that take…?” “Alice and I collected a few tissue samples when we were in the field earlier this year and now we’d like to talk to you about collaborating on some DNA analysis…” I’m paraphrasing of course, but I’ve heard variants of these numerous times over the last decade or so. I’ve also met many people with a passion for ecology and conservation who have wanted to learn more about genetics as it applies to their research. Which is great! DNA can be a wonderful tool with great potential to contribute to wildlife conservation and management. As DNA sequencing technologies advance, genetic analysis has become both more affordable and more accessible to people who study non–model organisms (i.e. most of the world’s wildlife!). 
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Click here to read the full post at WildlifeSNPits: Earlier this year I spent two weeks walking in picturesque Tasmania, eyes fixed firmly to the floor, looking for poo to collect. Other times I’ve searched beneath rocks in high country paddocks for endangered lizards, or driven over 400 kms with a cargo of wallaby sperm destined for our lab freezers. And I get paid to do this! When I meet new people they often comment on how interesting my work sounds, usually followed by “and how on earth did you end up doing that anyway?”. So in my first post for WildlifeSNPits I thought that, by way of introduction, I’d write about some of the things that have inspired me to follow this career path. Of course not all of us are excited by the same things, so I’d also like to learn about your sources of inspiration… 
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WildlifeSNPits posts24/3/2015 I'd like to keep track of all of my blog posts in one place, so this is just to note that I'm going to use this site to share links to my posts elsewhere, especially those I write at WildlifeSNPits.
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