Half a year has whizzed by since our titan-filled Amazonian adventure. So how has the project been progressing? What have each of us been up to? And what’s next for Cash of the Titans?
Project highlights
We started this project with clear aims of what we wanted to achieve and create. Having the team scattered around the country hasn’t always made this easy, but with regular Skype calls to spur us on, here are our main project achievements from the last 6 months:
Created a project report to update our fantastic sponsors about the expedition and our findings
Undertook a school visit to teach students about invertebrate conservation and our research. We even got to do a bug hunt and make seed balls with them!
Submitted a paper for scientific publication entitled: “A pilot study on the movement behaviour of Titanus giganteus: captive observations and radio-telemetry to study the largest-bodied beetle in the world”
Given presentations on our expedition, including at Eleanor’s local Pint of Science
And last but definitely not least, our Expedition Film has gone live following some incredible work by Chris – check it out here
Life away from Titans…
Everything we’ve done on this project has been alongside our full-time jobs and other interests. So here are some personal highlights from the last 6 months 😊
Laura
Since returning from my winter in South America, I’ve got stuck straight back into my job as an Ecological Consultant for Mott MacDonald. It’s such a varied role, with the last few months including: battling through bramble in SE England to spot otter signs, reviewing reports for hydroelectric projects in Africa, and assessing the risk of birds colliding with wind farms in Latin America.
Away from work, I’ve been keeping busy by playing plenty of sports (including completing two half-marathons), living up to my Expedition Chef title with lots of experimenting in the kitchen, travelling round the country to catch up with old friends, and have moved house (twice!). And as much as I love my job, I’ve made the decision to head back into the realm of research and am now busy preparing to start a PhD with the London Natural Environment DTP in September…more exciting challenges ahead!
Eleanor
After getting back, I have had such fun working on the titan beetle research paper with Laura and Chris – which is now submitted – so fingers crossed it gets accepted in an animal behaviour journal soon! Alongside this I’ve also been ploughing through the final year of my PhD on woodlouse personality, recently hitting the personal milestone of having now collected (then released) roughly a thousand woodlice for research! I’m looking forward to the next stage of research after completing my thesis, and am looking into future interesting projects looking into animal personality and the invertebrate trade.
I have also had some exciting research news in the past six months, with a scientific paper published in Ecology and Evolution arguing for stronger ethical guidelines for the treatment of invertebrates in science, and also a co-authored book chapter published in “An Alfred Russel Wallace Companion”, with all sorts of weird and wonderful facts about bugs, which was such fun to research! In other news, I have adopted three giant snails and am currently preparing for the arrival of a pair of horsehead grasshoppers with baited breath. (If horsehead grasshoppers are new to you, I would definitely recommend looking them up as they are just adorable!!)
Chris
I have had an interesting few months, working back at home in Devon but also away on short film projects. Now into my second year of beekeeping for my role at the University of Exeter, I have caught my first swarm, taken off my first honey crop and passed my Basic Beekeeping qualification. Being surrounded by (sometimes angry) bees is no longer daunting at all, having survived the merciless hoards of bullet ants, giant centipedes and every other sting-endowed creature in French Guiana.
Giving me breaks in between editing the Titan film, I have filmed a conference in Spain, a promotional video for a local dance studio and a video about my university’s animal behaviour field course on Lundy Island, as well as local drone work. I have been playing lots of tennis and finally got out my old rubber dinghy to go down the Exeter canal.
Next steps
So what’s next for Cash of the Titans? We’re delighted to have completed most of the outputs we set out to achieve, but we’re not stopping here.
With Chris having polished off the Expedition Titan film, we’re now sharing it far and wide, including entering it for lots of film competitions and festivals. We’re waiting to hear back on the manuscript we’ve submitted, so with any luck we’ll be able to share our scientific findings with you within the next few months. And while we’re taking a little break from creating new outputs, we’ll be back on it soon to work on a longer film about the invertebrate trade in general.
So it’s not farewell, but ciao for now…watch this space!
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