• Home
  • Publications
  • Research
  • Links
  • CV
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Home
  • Publications
  • Research
  • Links
  • CV
  • Resources
  • Blog
  Anna MacDonald
  • Home
  • Publications
  • Research
  • Links
  • CV
  • Resources
  • Blog

My blog posts

    Anna MacDonald

    I'm a biologist with interests in genetics, conservation, ecology, invasive species, and wildlife management.
    ​

    This page mostly aggregates my posts from elsewhere, usually WildlifeSNPits.

    Archives

    May 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    February 2018
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    September 2014
    March 2014

    Categories

    All
    AcademicLife
    Animals
    Antimicrobials
    Australia
    Bandicoots
    Behind The Paper
    Bettongs
    Bilby
    Biodiversity
    Bioinformatics
    Blogging
    Camera Traps
    Carnivores
    Citizen Science
    Climate Change
    Conferences
    Conservation
    Conservation Biology
    Conservation Genetics
    Conservation Genomics
    Conservation Success
    Conservation Units
    Cryptic Species
    Cuscus
    Data Collection
    DNA Barcoding
    DNA Detection
    DNA Extraction
    DNA Sequencing
    DNA Testing
    Domestication
    Earth Day
    Ecosystem Engineers
    ECR
    EDNA
    Endangered Species
    Evolution
    Experimental Design
    False Negative
    False Positive
    Field Work
    Friday Link Dump
    Genetic Diversity
    Genomics
    Grasslands
    Habitat Loss
    Inspiration
    Invasive Species
    Laboratory
    Mammal March Madness
    Mammals
    Marsupial Mole
    Marsupials
    Metabarcoding
    Microsatellites
    New Guinea
    Opossums
    PCR
    Plastic
    Policy
    Pollution
    Population Genetics
    Pouches
    Predation
    Predator Prey Interactions
    Predator-prey Interactions
    Quokkas
    Quolls
    Reproduction
    Reptiles
    Research
    Rewilding
    Sampling
    Scicomm
    Science Communication
    Science Outreach
    Science Policy
    Selfies
    Seminars
    Species
    Species Concepts
    Species Delimitation
    STEM
    Student Travel Awards
    Taxonomy
    Tissue Collection
    Volunteering
    Wallabies
    Wildlife
    Wildlife Disease
    Wildlife Management
    Wildlife Trade
    Wombats
    Women In Science
    Women In STEM

    RSS Feed

Back to Blog

WildlifeSNPits Post 02/02/2018: How the sugar glider got to Tasmania and why this is bad news for difficult birds

2/2/2018

 
Click here to read the full post at WildlifeSNPits.

When is a native species also invasive, and how can we tell? This may seem a strange question, but it highlights the difficulty we sometimes face determining the boundaries of the area in which a species naturally occurs. Especially when detection is imperfect and those boundaries may change over time. Animals move. Plants move. Sometimes a species will naturally move into a new area, and we recognise this as a range expansion. At other times, a species may only be able to move to a new area with human help (deliberate or unintentional), and this may create a new, invasive population.

​Think about Australia. If I asked you to name an invasive mammal, you might choose a fox, cat, rabbit or pig. These are clearly not native to Australia. What if I ask you to name a native mammal? Maybe you chose a red kangaroo or a wombat? They are both native to Australia, but they are not native to ALL of Australia. If we were to move a native species to a new part of the country where it had never previously occurred, it may not find the resources it needs to survive, but if it did, we may have created a new invasive population – an invasive native...
Picture
Photo credit Dejan Stojanovic
0 Comments
Read More
Back to Blog

WildlifeSNPits Post 17/12/2016: There’s no such thing as “boring” data in citizen science

18/12/2016

 
Clink here to read the full post at WildlifeSNPits

As a child I was hooked on wildlife documentaries (I still am…) and from these I gleaned that the career highlight of any self-respecting botanist or zoologist was to discover a new species. For a while that was my goal too, but then I became sidetracked by questions about genetics and evolution and conservation.
​
Fast forward to the present, to the recent growth in citizen science, bioblitzes and nature apps, where almost anyone with an interest can find some way to contribute to scientific endeavour. I have experienced citizen science from both sides: as a scientist I have greatly appreciated the help of volunteers to collect samples and data; as a citizen I have contributed wildlife photos and sighting reports and helped with wildlife surveys and monitoring projects. All of the pictures I have shared in this post are ones I have recently uploaded to the Canberra Nature Map – I love taking wildlife photos and in addition to contributing to local biodiversity knowledge, the Canberra Nature Map is a great way for me to find out identifications for species I don’t know.

​There’s a lot of discussion among scientists at the moment about the effectiveness of citizen science, how to collect reliable data, and how to retain volunteers. Some of this surely comes down to the expectations and experiences of participants. One thing I’ve come to realise (through occasional conversations rather than proper data collection) is just how public perception of science can be skewed, and how this influences the idea of what “doing science” entails. Media fanfare tends to focus more on “big discoveries” in science – like the discovery of new species – and less on the years of routine, mundane, boring, data collection associated with those discoveries. I understand why that happens, but it can be misleading. Those who volunteer on conservation projects usually do so because they want to make a difference, so as scientists we need to make sure that people understand the many different ways in which they can make a difference...

Picture
A Christmas beetle (Anoplognathus montanus)
0 Comments
Read More
Proudly powered by Weebly