Hello Internet!
Today has most definitely been an insight into how biology works (or doesn’t) in the field!
We all set off to do our mini projects for the trip. Our group decided to look at vigilance in red deer – whether increasing group size meant less were looking for danger and/or if they looked for shorter periods of time.
It was quite fun, and went fairly well… Aside from the fact that the deer decided to be fairly elusive today compared with yesterday where they were right outside the van!
Nevertheless, in amongst our traipsing up and down the valley staring through our binoculars, we collected our data and then headed home for tea and a discussion with one of the lecturers… I think we nearly broke science! We have too few sets of data for one type of statistical analysis (and that would be the best option), but after a lot of head scratching we think we’ve cracked it! Although the data now has a lot of variables, at least we might find something statistically significant! Fortunately that is a problem to be saved for when I am back home with a computer!
Despite the slightly disastrous data collection, the weather was gorgeous today and the Scottish countryside really came into its own. It was quite stunning and it was great to sit there watching deer in the valley with the sun shining down. But it was still cold! There was still snow on the slopes not too far from where we sat!
Species List Day Three:
Peregrin