Primatology Fieldwork: Trentham Monkey Forest

On the 21st of October, we went on a field trip for our Primatology module to the Trentham Monkey Forest. The Monkey Forest is home to 140 free-ranging Barbary macaques, endangered monkeys that originate from the Atlas mountains in Morocco.
Trentham Monkey Forest is one of the three parks in Europe dedicated to the conservation of Barbary Macaques.

The bus left at 7:30 AM and arrived at the enclosure by 10:00 AM. As we arrived, a member of the staff told us some information about the monkeys that they have and the biology of the Barbary macaques. The monkeys are divided in two groups of approximately 70 monkeys each, called the “French” monkeys and the “German” monkeys, since some of them come from the monkey forest in France and others come from the forest in Germany, respectively. The monkeys are provisioned with food, but they also forage for natural foods in the forest. 

Two monkeys grooming each other

We were separated in groups of three and we were allowed to stay three hours with the monkeys and complete our task. The task consisted on picking a monkey and observing it for one hour, using focal animal sampling and taking notes of its activity on the sheets that were given to us. During that hour, each member of the group had a specific job:

Observer 1 had to record what the monkey was doing at one-minute intervals. Each specific activity had a “code”: for example, the action “walk” was “W”, and so on. This is the task that was assigned to me.

Observer 2 focused on all instances of social interactions such as aggression, sexual interactions, etc.

Observer 3 did an instantaneous recording of spatial associations at 5min intervals: the nearest adult neighbour (sex and distance) and number of adults within 2 metres.

The monkey we picked was a large adult male, which at first the only thing he seemed to do was  to eat. For the first half hour my sheet was full of "Fs" for “feeding”. Then a female pointlessly tried to mate with him, but he did not seem interested. He spent the rest of the time sleeping on top of a tree.

Our monkey performing his two favourite activities: eating and sleeping.

The trip, overall, was very enjoyable; having the chance to see the monkeys that closely and observing their behaviour in detail was really worth it. I can truly say I enjoyed this trip and that I would really appreciate attending to more field trips like this one in my course.

For further information on the Trentham Monkey Forest, visit their website: https://monkey-forest.com/

Seminar: Evaluating Greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement relating to timber in construction in the UK

Dr Morwenna Spear gave a talk about greenhouse gas emissions related to timber construction in the UK.

First, she talked about the recent importance of climate change and how it is key for the issue the seminar was about. Dr. Spear pointed out that timber can be thought of as biomass as well as a structuring material. Then she talked about the “Wood in Construction Report”, which had four co-authors: professor Callum Hill, Dr. Andrew Norton, Professor Colin Price and Dr. Graham Ormondroyd; of which two had already been at Bangor University.

We saw a graph showing the progress achieved in reducing greenhouse gas emissions during the past years, which was considerable, especially regarding industry and power sectors. Another graph showed the carbon emissions in the built environment from 1990 and how they had been reduced until the present days, including how they are expected to be reduced until 2050. The reduction seems to be considerably significant.

 

So, what’s the purpose of forestry in the UK?

The demand for timber is set to increase. Timber production involves a sustainable production and renewable material, as it has an excellent carbon profile (i.e. potential for a low embodied carbon material: it takes less energy than some other competitive products; and high sequestered carbon content, keeps carbon out of the atmosphere)

Also, there is a demand for renewable biomass for energy and recyclable materials in a circular economy. Furthermore, the wood-based panels demand is gradually increasing with time.

Morwenna explained that as buildings become more energy efficient, the importance of the energy and carbon associated with construction materials will become more prominent, therefore there is an increased importance in designing efficiently with the materials resources, as well as an increased consideration of embodied carbon or global warming potential (GWP) of buildings at build stage.

But, what is the embodied carbon? Embodied carbon is the CO₂ burden associated with the production processes. For wood, this could include forest activities, extraction and transport, etc.

A model was developed for annual housebuilding to investigate global warming potential (GWP) of new build, assumed approx. 190,000 dwellings per year, assuming 28% of dwellings were timber-framed. I didn’t pick up this part very well since it was about topics which seemed unfamiliar to me, but what  I understood is that the reinforced concrete had the most embodied carbon, however, bricks and other material types also had a certain quantity of it.

All scenarios with increased use of timber led to a reduction in the embodied carbon compared to those with no growth in timber. They also stored a greater volume of sequestered carbon within the built environment than the no growth case.

Accounting for demolition timber apparently had only a small impact on the volume of stored sequestered carbon in the built environment. This was due to the number of new houses built being significantly larger than the number of demolitions.

Some things to point out–housebuilding is a relatively minor component of construction in greenhouse gas emissions–non-residential structures also require action.

The conclusions of the talk were:

·The use of mass timber building systems can both reduce embodied carbon and increase the stored sequestered CO₂.

·Material choice can be related to global warming potential using Environmental Product Declarations

·Details such as cladding materials, roof covering, etc, can alter embodied carbon of buildings

·Timber framed systems offer an increase in quantity of stored carbon and a reduction in embodied carbon.

Personally, this talk did not particularly catch my attention since is not exactly related to my course–I am a Zoology student. However, it gave me some information I did not know beforehand on carbon emissions and industry which I might find useful.

Workshop 1: Job interviews

For our Science and Employability module we attended a workshop that consisted of two parts: for the first part, a hypothetic scenario was set where our group was a victim of a plane crash in the middle of a snowy forest and we had fifteen minutes to decide which ten items to pick from a list of  various items from inside the plane that would help us survive in the woods before the plane burst into flames; so that afterwards we debated our decisions. But on this entry I will focus on the second part of the workshop.

For the latter we simulated a job interview and each one of the members in our group assumed a role, which we rotated in shifts: the candidate (the person who was going to be interviewed), a note taker who did not make questions but took notes on what the candidate was saying, a supervisor who made sure that the interview would last five minutes (no more, no less) and three interviewers. In our case, since our group only consisted of five members, the supervisor also made questions.

After the candidate was interviewed, the note taker gave some feedback, mostly positive but also constructive; and afterwards the remaining members of the group made some contributions to the feedback the note taker had done.

Personally, I think it was quite a remarkable change from working as a group to dividing ourselves in different roles, especially when you were the one to be interviewed you felt so much pressure and responsibility. However, I don’t think interviewing the other members of the group was difficult or awkward, the questions were quite short, basic and concrete, and not particularly uncomfortable.

I found some difficulty at giving feedback when I assumed the role of note taker. I feel like the other members of the group assumed the role very easily and naturally, however, my feedback was pretty poor and general.

Since I was the first candidate, I was quite nervous and whereas the other members were being interviewed I kept thinking of more things I could have said in my interview, and questions I would have liked to answer. For example, the very first question I answered got me unprepared and I completely blanked. A few minutes later I thought of many possible answers, but I guess that is some preparation for future real job interviews.

While watching other candidates, I didn’t feel like I was a rival or competing with them at all: we were all in the same boat, but I guess in a real job interview the situation would have completely different…

To sum up, I thought it was a very useful workshop, and also pretty entertaining; which changed my perception towards job interviews and the reaction I thought I would have when the moment of my first interview arrived (even if it was not real!).