Public mammal conservation event at WIT: Saturday, 25 April 2015
If you are interested in wildlife and conservation, then you should come along to the Mammals in a Sustainable Environment (MISE) Project Showcase starting at 10am on Saturday, 25th of April, 2015 at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT).
This full day, FREE event, is packed full of interesting talks and workshops for the animal lover and includes guest speakers Professor Ian Montgomery from Queen’s University Belfast and Dr Ferdia Marnell from the National Parks and Wildlife Service. There will be talks on the research outputs of the MISE project including information on pine marten, otters and bats. In the afternoon there will be a number of workshops including “An overview of mammal survey techniques” and “An introduction to the MISE education packs for schools”. A full schedule of talks and workshops will be published on the WIT website shortly.
Red squirrel photographed by Brian Power who volunteered at many of the MISE project events
The MISE team will also launch a handbook about the work the project has been carrying out in Ireland and Wales, which is one of the highlights of the day.
According to Dr Catherine O’Reilly, Principal Investigator of the MISE project, “The handbook is full of interesting insights into some of the animals that live in our local environment and seeks to instil in the wider public the importance of their conservation”.
MISE fosters the involvement of communities in Ireland and Wales in mammal conservation through public engagement in volunteer mammal survey work. In Ireland, the survey work targets mammals such as otters, pine martens, bats and squirrels. Survey methods include faecal collections, hair-tube surveys and small mammal feeding stations. DNA testing is then carried out at WIT on the samples collected and this can reveal the species, the sex of the animal and can often identify a genetic fingerprint.
MISE is a collaboration between lead partner, WIT; Waterford City and County Council and the National Biodiversity Data Centre in Ireland, and The Vincent Wildlife Trust, Natural Resources Wales and Snowdonia National Park Authority in Wales. The project is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Ireland Wales Programme (INTERREG 4A). To find out more, visit our website www.miseproject.ie or find us on Facebook.
Attendance to this one day event is free but booking is necessary. To book, please contact Denise O’Meara atdomeara@wit.ie or 051 302665.
