In just a few days I am off to Scotland for the first time in my life. Instead of a brief visit to Edinburgh for a visit to the castle and trip to buy some short bread, I am going to be spending six weeks on the Isle of Rum with almost no electricity. Why would anyone go to a remote Scottish Island for six weeks you might ask? Well the obvious answer to that question, of course, is to go an measure the cranial capacities of over 1000 red deer (Cervus elaphus) skulls (see picture to the left).
I am going with my girlfriend and we are really excited about the trip. We are working on a collaboration between UC Santa Barbara and the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh. The skulls that we will be measuring are from a very well studied population of deer. Researchers have been studying red deer on rum for decades (Red Deer Project) and some of the seminal behavioural ecology papers have been produced from research carried out on these animals. We're helping out in a project investigating cranial capacity and life-history traits, which will hopefully produce some interesting results.
While we are there we get to experience an amazing Island. I am hoping to take some nice photos of the scenery and wildlife. But to be honest I am mainly excited about not having to sit behind a computer for the next month and a half. If I get the chance to put some pictures up then I'll try and put them on my blog or on flckr.
Here are some links to sites about Rum:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B9m
http://www.isleofrum.com/
I am going with my girlfriend and we are really excited about the trip. We are working on a collaboration between UC Santa Barbara and the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh. The skulls that we will be measuring are from a very well studied population of deer. Researchers have been studying red deer on rum for decades (Red Deer Project) and some of the seminal behavioural ecology papers have been produced from research carried out on these animals. We're helping out in a project investigating cranial capacity and life-history traits, which will hopefully produce some interesting results.
While we are there we get to experience an amazing Island. I am hoping to take some nice photos of the scenery and wildlife. But to be honest I am mainly excited about not having to sit behind a computer for the next month and a half. If I get the chance to put some pictures up then I'll try and put them on my blog or on flckr.
Here are some links to sites about Rum:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B9m
http://www.isleofrum.com/
picture of Rum by Paul Sammonds from www.paul.sammonds.com
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