• 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

The great Poo Hunt 2014

23/3/2014

 
Picture
Picture
For the last couple of weeks I've been in Tasmania, helping with fieldwork for The Great Poo Hunt - a large scale predator scat survey of the east of Tasmania. We've been collecting all scats that might belong to the larger mammalian predators, from selected survey sites. These will be DNA tested to identify the predator and some of the prey species whose remains are within each scat. Hopefully there will be lots of devil and quoll scats, signs of a healthy ecosystem! But I suspect there will also be a good proportion of feral cat scats and some dog scats. We really hope that we don't find any evidence of fox DNA in the scats - a fox population here would be disastrous for Tasmanian wildlife.

It's been hard work, with mud, wind, rain, heat, cold, leeches, biting ants and a heavy backpack (did someone say that science was glamorous...? ...probably not...) but I've had a wonderful time and got to see some parts of the country I would never normally get to. One thing I have really enjoyed is finding evidence of devils in the wild. Devil numbers have declined dramatically in recent years as a result of devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) but they are still hanging on across Tasmania and a lot of dedicated people are fighting to help them survive. I photographed the devils above at the Tasmanian Devil Park in Taranna. It has been years since I saw one in the wild (caveat - I have not spent an awful lot of time in Tasmania lately to go looking!). The scats are some that we came across at a devil latrine near Huonville. You can see they are full of fur and interesting pieces of bone and other prey remains. Devils tend to leave their scats in a favourite place and multiple devils may use the same site as a communal latrine / message board. The first latrine my team came across was in a beautiful spot on a ridgeline overlooking the Huon valley. We all agreed, the devils have it right, they like to poo with a view!
3 Comments
Read More
Alexander Dudley
25/3/2014 10:15:57

Being somewhat excited by animal droppings myself I thoroughly enjoyed this article. I found a racing pigeon band in a devil scat at Cockle Creek some time back.

Reply
Anna MacDonald
28/3/2014 09:00:34

Thanks Alex - the racing pigeon sounds like a tasty meal for that devil!

Reply
Japanese Girls Arkansas link
5/12/2022 14:06:38

Loved reading this thhank you

Reply



Leave a Reply.

Proudly powered by Weebly