MSc Biodiversity & Conservation Internship report

My internship year comprised six months at the wild plant conservation charity, Plantlife, in Salisbury, and four months at the Zoological Society of London, based at London Zoo. Both placements gave me the opportunity to use some of the skills that I acquired on the MSc course and also develop new skills, which will be invaluable in a career in conservation. This report is loosely divided up into skills obtained throughout the two placements. However, while carrying out many of the tasks, I developed several skills so the headings only define the main skill acquired.

Plantlife Conservation Intern

At Plantlife I was part of the Conservation team, mainly working with Dominic Price, Species Recovery Co-ordinator, on the Back from the Brink programme. This is a programme, partially funded by Natural England, which concentrates on saving highly endangered plant species bringing them back from the brink of extinction. Plant identification As I was working at a plant charity with several botanists, I improved my botanical identification skills. Having taken the week-long ID module at Leeds it was less overwhelming as I was familiar with the plant families and some of the more common species. Since I was working with the species recovery co-ordinator, I became familiar with several rare plant species that Plantlife actively protects. Through site visits, surveys and follow-up reports, I was not only able to identify these species, but I learnt their habitat requirements and the processes required for management of their habitats. Whilst working on a project for the Wild About Plants project officer (discussed further below) I learnt about many common plant species and this increased my confidence in botanical identification. I also accompanied Dominic on a day in Dorset where he was training Plantlife members in the Common Plants Survey. This was on a heathland and I learnt several additional heathland species that day. An added bonus was that two people from the Dorset Wildlife Trust who were assisting on the course found a smooth snake and a slow worm in their snake traps, which were reptile species that I had not seen before. Even out of working hours I further developed my plant ID skills as I went on several outings with colleagues to nearby reserves such as Martin Down, which is a lowland grassland national nature reserve that has many plant species characteristic of chalk downland. Botanical surveying and habitat management in action An important part of Dominics job is visiting sites in the south east of England where Plantlifes target species are present. These sites are often monitored by Plantlifes voluntary Flora Guardians but staff visit if the site has not been assessed in several years or if any management is required. In July we went to part of the New Forest in Hampshire where there are several of the largest populations of Marsh Clubmoss (Lycopodiella inundata) in the UK. We found a couple of the populations in damper parts of the heathland where it was known to be extant. We were looking to see if there were any negative effects on the clubmoss from burning regimes but the populations appeared to be thriving. On another day of surveys we visited further Lycopodiella sites in Hampshire owned by the Ministry of Defence. The aim of the visit was to assess how effective the previous years management had been. At these 2

sites, a digger had been used to scrape away the top layer of Molinia grass, which was dominating the area, in order to uncover buried Lycopodiella spores. At many of the scrapes, clubmoss population numbers had increased and there was also a higher diversity of heathland plants such as Sundew and Bog Pimpernel following removal of the grass. The last site that we visited was Eelmoor Marsh SSSI and SPA. The conservation adviser for the site showed us around the area and explained the management that they had carried out. There had previously been a dense pine forest, which they had cut down to create lower succession heathland habitat, and as a result now has a much higher biodiversity. A project that I was involved in for a large amount of my time at Plantlife was based at Bramshill Common, a Forestry Commission site in Hampshire. Plantlife had obtained grants from SITA and Veolia under the landfill tax scheme to carry out work to protect the rare plant species of the area. Over a number of days, Dominic and I surveyed the 15 ponds of Bramshill Plantation for Pillwort (Pilularia globulifera), a diminutive fern that has declined at the site since it was first recorded in 1986. Upon completion of the surveys, I produced a comprehensive interim report on the status of the site and our management recommendations (see Appendix 1). In September we visited two sites: Cock Marsh in Berkshire and Dorney Common in Buckinghamshire, to look for Brown Galingale (Cyperus fuscus), a small sedge found in ephemeral pools. At Cock Marsh, a SSSI owned by the National Trust, we found several Cyperus plants around the dry ponds. There were willows overhanging the ponds and large amounts of water dock in the centre of the ponds, which we recommended to the warden that they cleared back so that the Cyperus population could expand. We didnt find any plants at Dorney Common, which could have been due to the land drying out. As my placement was only for a few months I didnt always see projects right through from beginning to end. However, one project that I took part in from the planning to the action stage was management of a Tower Mustard (Arabis glabra) site at Stain Hill Reservoir that is owned by Thames Water near Hampton. My first day with Plantlife was spent on hands and knees on the banks of the reservoir looking for Arabis leaf rosettes (Figure 1). Following our site visit, I wrote the report on the site condition, threats to the Tower Mustard plants, and our management recommendations (see Appendix 2).

Figure 1: Arabis glabra leaf rosette, approximately 5 cm in diameter, showing signs of rabbit grazing This report was sent to the Thames Water Biodiversity Officer who we had met on our site visit. On a day after my placement with Plantlife, I met up with Dominic and some volunteers at Stain Hill to carry out the ground scarification that we had recommended. This was reported in the Thames Water magazine, The Source (Figure 2; Thames Water, 2010). After the work we visited Kempton Nature Reserve, a Thames Water wetland site, with the reserve warden. This site is a SSSI and an SPA for ducks, and we saw firsthand the problems that they were having with the nonnative invasive plant Crassula helmsii that was choking up the ponds.

Figure 2: Article on the scarification work that we carried out at Stain Hill Reservoirs (Thames Water, 2010) In September we went to Charterhouse School near Godalming, which is a former location for Starved Wood-sedge (Carex depauperata). This species is only known to occur in two locations in the UK Cheddar and Godalming and is therefore very close to extinction. The decision had been made to reintroduce this sedge to the grounds of Charterhouse, close to where it was last found before the Second World War. We planted 30 of the sedges (obtained from a private plant collection) close to the historic location. I created sketch maps of the location of the plants and, following the visit, I wrote a report on the reintroduction and proposed future management of the site (Appendix 3). Some months later, Dominic was interviewed about this project on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. It was rewarding to hear the national press take an interest in plant conservation projects such as this. Technical writing During my time at Plantlife I wrote several reports on the surveys that we had carried out, often including recommendations for habitat management. By doing this I gained 4

an understanding of what information is required in a report and how to target it to the intended readers. For example, the report for the Bramshill project was primarily for the Forestry Commission who will be carrying out the management that we suggested. As the management recommendations were the part of the report that was most relevant to them, we put these in a table, which referred to the site maps so that it was easy to see what actions should be taken. At the end of 2009, Dominic and I had a meeting with the Forestry Commission to discuss management at Bramshill. The meeting was very successful and the FC was happy to carry out all of the actions that we had recommended. I had the opportunity to do some scientific writing when writing two species dossiers. These are documents each focussed on one of Plantlifes Back from the Brink species that give all the information known about that species including its distribution, ecology, threats and conservation. The species dossiers I wrote on Sword-leaved Helleborine (Cephalanthera longifolia; Rumsey, 2009a) and Spiked Rampion (Phyteuma spicatum) required a large amount of research into historic and current distribution, and collation of information from the scientific literature on the ecology and habitat requirements of these species. A task that I found particularly fulfilling was creating a poster for a Local Biodiversity Action Plan conference in Hampshire. The poster was about the heathland restoration work that had been carried out at the Lycopodiella sites we had previously visited. This was my first time designing and writing a conference poster, and it took a considerable amount of time to ensure there was enough detail but it was legible and interesting to read. This exercise required the use of several skills. I included a map of all the sites in the Thames Basin where work had been carried out. This involved the use of MapInfo to create a GIS map indicating the sites and local SSSIs. I also used Excel to produce a graph of species present before and after management. I was very pleased with the final poster (Appendix 4) because it looked professional and had been completely my own work. Data collection and presentation I learnt how to use several online data services including MAGIC, NBN Gateway and GBIF. MAGIC (http://www.magic.gov.uk) is a government environmental map service that can be used to find out if an area of land is under any statutory designations. The National Biodiversity Network (NBN) Gateway (http://data.nbn.org.uk) is a biological record website that has datasets from many organisations, making species records widely available. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF; http://www.gbif.org) is similar to the NBN Gateway but shares biodiversity data on a global scale. I used this to obtain data on the global distribution of endangered plant species, particularly Cephalanthera longifolia and Phyteuma spicatum, for which I wrote species dossiers. A skill I was particularly pleased to learn was the use of GIS. During the MSc course I had learnt the basics of the ArcGIS program, which meant I had some knowledge of how such information systems work. At Plantlife I was introduced to the program MapInfo, which I had not used before, and learned how to use it to map data that I had obtained from the NBN Gateway. By mapping species locations I could find out where rare plant hotspots were to inform Plantlife of places where habitat management could benefit a large number of rare plants. GIS is now widely used in 5

conservation so it was good to understand the basics and, should I need to use it again, I feel I would have a better idea of how to sort and present data. Communicating with the public One of the things that I think is vital for any NGO is to ensure that the public is aware of, understand, and care what the NGO is doing. It is difficult to care about a cause if you do not understand it. Understanding of plant conservation starts with an awareness of the diversity of plants and habitats that exist. The main project that Plantlife is using to involve people of all different backgrounds in plant conservation is the Wild About Plants project (www.wildaboutplants.org.uk). I contributed to this project by writing a series of habitat guides (Rumsey, 2009b; see Appendix 5 for an example). Each card gave a description of the habitat, a key area for the habitat, a rare plant found there, traditional uses for the plants found there, and ten common plant species of the habitat. These guides were targeted at college students so had to be written in a way that the students would understand (i.e. not using too much botanical jargon) and also had to be made interesting to encourage the students to learn more about plants. I was not only involved in writing the text for this resource but had to co-ordinate with the publications officer to find images of each plant described and deal with any copyright issues regarding these photos. I observed how the people I worked with dealt with the press by issuing press releases on project results and successes in plant conservation, and talking to newspaper and radio journalists about their work. I found that the research was important but, in order for anyone to want to know about it, it had to be presented in an interesting way. Working with others During the six months that I was at Plantlife I attended several staff meetings, which opened my eyes to how different members of staff viewed the organisation. I also found how the board of trustees recommendations influenced the way that the organisation operated, and sometimes how these have to be acted upon even if the staff do not agree with them. It was good to meet the trustees as they all had very varied backgrounds and had experiences of conservation from different angles. I also attended a meeting with two people from Pond Conservation who were looking for suggestions of places to create ponds that would benefit endangered plants as part of their Million Ponds project. For this meeting I produced fact sheets on some of the pond plants that Plantlife works on so that the people at Pond Conservation could make more informed decisions on where to create any new ponds. On site visits I met people who were working for similar organisations such as Natural England, the Forestry Commission and Thames Water. It was interesting to notice that despite everyone working towards the same goal of conserving habitats or species, each organisation has slightly different priorities. I found that this is important to keep in mind when working with others to ensure that minimal conflict occurs when collaborating. All of this requires good communication so that each partner knows where they stand.

Zoological Society of London Amur Leopard Programme Assistant

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This placement, based in the Conservation department of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) at London Zoo, was with Sarah Christie who co-ordinates conservation projects throughout East and Southeast Asia. The Amur Leopard programme is only part of Sarahs work. During my internship I was the main contact for anyone requiring information on the Amur Leopard programme, monitoring e-mails sent to the programme address and answering queries relating to the programme. There are only 35 Amur Leopards remaining in the wild, all of which are in Russia or close to its borders in China and North Korea. Co-ordination of the European breeding programme One of my main duties at ZSL was ensuring that the European Amur Leopard breeding programme (EEP) kept running smoothly. The EEP comprises around fifty European and Russian zoos that have Amur Leopards and are members of the European Zoo and Aquarium Association (EAZA). As co-ordinator of the Amur Leopard EEP, Sarah publishes an annual studbook, which details any births and deaths that have occurred within the zoos, and recommends transfers between zoos to ensure that the zoo population has as good a genetic composition as possible. I was involved in keeping all these records up-to-date in preparation for the 2010 studbook. This required contacting zoos that had not sent in their data, and maintaining the Access database in which all the data were stored. It was particularly important to ensure that zoos in the process of transferring animals were kept up-to-date with the transfer, and it was often necessary to mediate communication between zoos. Most of the information relating to the breeding programme is held on SPARKS, the animal recording system that most zoos use. I learnt how to use this computer program to create and amend records on individual leopards. This included adding information such as the inbreeding coefficients, hybrid percentages and carriers of the melanism gene, which all had to be calculated for new cubs. As news of births and deaths was usually sent to us, I was responsible for keeping the studbook holder up-to-date so that she had the most recent records. I also co-ordinated with ISIS, the international database to which all studbook records are sent. Analysing data To help get a better idea of how successful transfer and breeding recommendations were within the EEP, I carried out queries on the Access database and generated Excel charts of the exported data. Graphs that I produced included: % breeding recommendations fulfilled/unfulfilled, number of years taken to fulfil breeding recommendations (see Figure 3), possible reasons for breeding failure, proportion of breeding recommendations fulfilled by each zoo, number of cubs born in each litter and survival rate of cubs, % transfer recommendations between zoos fulfilled, number of years for transfer recommendations to be fulfilled. I carried out this analysis towards the end of the internship so there was not time to produce a report on the findings. However, the results should make some indications as to the success of the breeding programme and where improvements could be made.

50 45 40 35 30 25 20 Number of zoos 15 10 5 0 Unfulfilled 0 1 2 3 4 Number of years taken to fulfil recs

Figure 3: The number of years taken for zoos to breed a pair of Amur Leopards following recommendations from the studbook co-ordinator (0 years means recommendation fulfilled within the year). Communicating with the public My other main duty was co-ordinating the Amur Leopard and Tiger Alliance (ALTA). This is a coalition of 13 international organisations who work together for the conservation of Amur Tigers and Leopards. I handled donations sent to the charity by the public. This involved use of the electronic banking system and keeping records of all the money received. I was also responsible for updating and maintaining the website (www.amur-leopard.org). I particularly enjoyed the task of improving the site to make it more accessible and useful to those visiting it. There was a lot of good text on the website but this was often presented in large blocks, which can be off-putting to readers. I divided the text into sections with sub-headings, which made the information easier to read. As I had noticed that many people were sending in enquiries about how they could support ALTAs work, I introduced a How can I help? section to the website. This contained information on ways to donate money to ALTA and ideas for fundraising activities. I also made sure that we had a certificate to send to anyone who raised money, particularly so children had something to show for their achievement. I liaised with fundraisers that required help in their activities. For example, a man contacted me about a sponsored walk that he and his daughter had planned that was to end at their local zoo. I gave them information on how they could best collect sponsorships and contacted the zoo to find out if there was any way they could reward the girl and her friends at the end of their walk. The result was a sponsored walk with a guided tour of the zoo at the end and attention from the local press. Writing and editing Compiling the ALTA newsletter required a lot of co-ordination. I edited and arranged news and stories that contributors had sent in. I also wrote several passages on the status of the programme and new developments since the previous newsletter. Apart 8

from writing parts of the newsletter and writing sections of text for the ALTA website, I also wrote several other information pieces. I wrote a short piece on the Amur Leopard for the EAZA Felid Taxon Advisory Group so that they could make better informed decisions on the subspecies in their meeting (Appendix 6). Towards the end of my placement I drafted an article on why it is important to conserve the Amur Leopard for the Kyoto Journal, which is publishing a special biodiversity edition of their magazine to be handed out to all 7000 delegates at the UN Conference of Parties 10 in October 2010. This article is to be included in the special edition, and will hopefully alert many of the delegates to the plight of the extremely endangered Amur Leopard. One task I particularly enjoyed was editing the annual report for Phoenix Fund, one of the Russian conservation charities. I read through the long document and edited it for grammar and suggested different ways of phrasing sentences so that they made sense in English. I also edited a proposal for a zookeeper from Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in the USA who was applying for money from their Quarters for Conservation scheme (where $0.25 of each visitors ticket is donated to a conservation project) to be donated to ALTA. This was a useful skill to practise and I found I was good at it so hopefully I can carry out similar activities in my future career. Researching attitudes A side project that I was involved in was aimed at investigating the attitudes of Chinese people to traditional Chinese medicine, tiger farming and the tiger trade. As a contact of Sarahs was in touch with the president of the Chinese student society, she decided it would be a good opportunity for us to try and ascertain current attitudes towards the use of tigers in medicines and other products. We would then be able to address any common misconceptions and, as this was a group of a few thousand people, pass on some educational materials that might be relayed to the Chinese public. I created a questionnaire that included questions on whether they used products that contained tiger parts and that tried to gauge attitudes towards the trade of such products. It was difficult to know how to ask some questions as they dealt with practices that are illegal and it is possible that respondents would not be comfortable in answering such questions. As a follow-up to the questionnaire I designed a leaflet on the tiger trade, which gave the basic facts on tiger farms and trade of tiger products (Appendix 7). I didnt get to see the results of the questionnaire because it had not been sent out before I completed the internship. However the results should be valuable to Sarah and her colleagues in informing them of how Chinese people feel about tigers and how best to change any negative attitudes towards tiger conservation. Using initiative During much of the time that I was at ZSL, I was left to work on tasks without supervision. As assistant director of Conservation Programmes, Sarah was often away at meetings and conferences so gave me the responsibility of planning my own work schedule. This often meant using my initiative to decide which tasks to focus on and how best to respond to queries. It was good to feel trusted enough to make my own judgement on minor issues and it enabled me to experience independent working as I imagine it would be in many jobs.

Working with others The monthly staff meetings helped me greatly improve my confidence in speaking to a group of people. Each meeting we took it in turn to give a brief overview of what we had been working on for the past month. I had no experience in public speaking without a presentation behind me so this was a valuable skill to obtain, which I improved with each meeting. In the last week before I left ZSL it was my responsibility to hand over to the new intern who would be carrying on my job. I spent a day explaining all the various jobs and teaching her how to use the software. It was the first time that I had experienced teaching someone and I found it a very fulfilling exercise, particularly as she picked everything up so fast.

Summary
I found the internship year to be a highly worthwhile year. I found out how the skills that I acquired during the MSc course could be applied in the real work environment and I also gained many new skills that can only be obtained by doing a job and learning along the way. The two placements were very different from each other and in some ways are difficult to compare. In the time that I spent at ZSL, I didnt particularly feel like I was directly involved in conservation. As the only Amur Leopards remaining in the wild are in Far Eastern Russia, ZSLs main role in the conservation of this species is collecting money for conservation projects run by NGOs in Russia. I felt more like I was being a spokesperson for the Amur Leopard. As it is a fairly unknown but extremely rare subspecies, it did feel like an important job. It was encouraging to get emails and internet messages from members of the public who had seen Amur Leopards in zoos and really cared that they remained extant in the wild. In contrast to this, my internship at Plantlife felt much more hands on and a complete experience as I was involved with conservation projects from start (researching the problem and joining in with surveys) to finish (writing the report and meeting with project partners). There was also a lot more variety in the tasks that I carried out. It was enjoyable to be able to work outdoors when surveying or helping out with practical conservation work. Being involved in tasks for several people within the organisation meant I had the opportunity to work on educational projects as well as use skills more specific to conservation such as using GIS and researching biological information. My primary reason for taking the internship module was that I didnt know what kind of job I wanted in conservation and was keen to try out some jobs to see what was possible with my qualifications. Working for both Plantlife and ZSL has helped to clarify that I would like to work for a conservation organisation, preferably in a job where I can work outside some of the time. The year gave me confidence as I proved that I am able to work on my own and as part of a team towards conservation goals.

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References
Rumsey, A. (2009a) Cephalanthera longifolia species dossier. Available from http://www.plantlife.org.uk/wild_plants/plant_species/narrow-leaved_helleborine/ [Accessed on 3rd August 2010]. Rumsey, A. (2009b) Habitat Wildflower Guides. Available http://www.wildaboutplants.org.uk/habitat/ [Accessed on 30th July 2010]. from

Thames Water (2010) The Source News for Thames Water People. April 2010. Thames Water, Reading.

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Appendices
Appendix 1: Bramshill report Appendix 2: Stain Hill report Appendix 3: Charterhouse report Appendix 4: Heathland restoration poster Appendix 5: Habitat wildflower guides Appendix 6: Amur Leopard fact sheet Appendix 7: Tigers in China leaflet

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