Trinity College Dublin, Ecology and Evolution
Once again, the time has come for the annual Eco Evo photo competition! The third instalment of the competition saw some wonderful submissions from across the School of Natural Sciences, and the top spot was fiercely contested. Due to their desire to participate, the editors stepped away from the judging process and the shortlisting was …
Continue reading “EcoEvo Blog Photo competition winner announcement!”
This post is based on the paper ‘The avifauna of the forest mosaic habitats of the Mariarano region, Mahajanga II district, north-west Madagascar’, just published open-access in Bothalia: African Biodiversity and Conservation. The header image by Jamie Grant-Fraser shows White-faced Whistling Ducks (Dendrocygna viduata) responding to the appearance of a Madagascar Harrier-hawk (Polyboroides radiatus).
For the past few months, I’d been hearing about this amazing urban wetland oasis. A wildlife haven right in the middle of Tallaght, on the south-west outskirts of Dublin. Every time I bumped into Collie Ennis on campus he was bouncing excitedly about how wonderful this place was and how I should go down there …
This post by Maureen and Marcin is based on their paper in the November 2019 issue of Science of The Total Environment, “Thermal effluents from power plants boost performance of the invasive clam Corbicula fluminea in Ireland’s largest river”. (Penk & Williams, 2019) The River Shannon is Ireland’s largest river, with a storied biological and …
Island biologists often work in beautiful and interesting places. It seems only fitting that when they meet up to discuss their work, they do it somewhere like Réunion, a volcanic oceanic island in the Indian Ocean, administered as a French department and the site of the 2019 Island Biology conference. Armed with my Junior Cert …
Continue reading “A Happy Réunion at the Island Biology Conference 2019”
Space: the final frontier. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission; the first time we had ever stepped foot on the moon. As Neil Armstrong boldly declared “that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”, we perhaps reached a new peak of human achievement. A peak …
Continue reading “Moon Landing Anniversary – Don’t look to the stars when the ground is burning”
This blog was first published on #theBOUblog. Check it out at https://www.bou.org.uk/blog-oconnell-two-new-white-eye-species-sulawesi/ The Wallacea region has always been known to be home to many unique species, with birds of paradise, giant reptiles and marsupial versions of sloths found among its many islands! The region takes its name from Alfred Russel Wallace, who along with Darwin, developed …
Continue reading “Two new bird species from the unique and understudied Sulawesi region”
Final-year undergraduate students summarise their undergrad thesis projects in TCD Zoology and Botany.
Darren O’Connell on his recent paper showing competition between males and females of the Olive-backed Sunbird in Sulawesi, Indonesia
From my time exploring New Zealand and Australia last year, seeing Dingoes on K’Gari was definitely the most goosebump-inducing experience! K’Gari, also known by the colonial name of Fraser Island, is the largest sand island in the world. K’Gari is a word from the local Aboriginal people’s language that means “paradise”.