Vole Patrol in Ireland!

The small team, founded by Dr Sarah Perkins, a Marie Curie Fellow at Cardiff School of Biosciences, spent the summer months of 2011 investigating the role of parasites in the population dynamics of the bank vole (Myodes glareolus).

Since its arrival in Ireland in the 1920s, the bank vole population has undergone an explosion, spreading across the south-west of the country. Research by the team found that  in crossing from mainlandEurope, the vole lost the majority of its parasites, and thus the invasive population has a fraction of the parasites found in its mainland counterparts. Dr Perkins is using the bank vole population as a model to study the role of parasites in invasive species population dynamics, and the possible association between rates of parasitism and the prevalence of autoimmune disease.

The team’s efforts over the summer, however, benefited more than Dr Perkins’ research. Helping Dr Perkins were four recent graduates of Cardiff University, the self-proclaimed ‘Vole Patrol’, who journeyed to Ireland mere weeks after sitting their final exams in either ecology or zoology. The season provided the new graduates with plenty of practical experience of both field and laboratory based research, which will serve them well in future career pursuits.

The team also made sure that there was more to their time in Ireland than scientific pursuits. They spent plenty of time exploring the natural wonders of the counties of Limerick andGalway, where research took place, and befriended many of the locals, who often seemed perplexed when told the team was spending three months chasing a rodent around the woods. It was a late-night conversation with new acquaintances in the Foynes Inn that led to an overnight expedition to a uninhabited island in the large River Shannon estuary to assess whether the vole had reached the islands. The team was interested in assessing whether the islands were vole-free and thus would serve as a sanctuary for native wildlife. On the island they explored the crumbling house of the last inhabitant, who had died decades earlier but whose dresses still hung in the wardrobe. The team cooked sausages over a home-made fire and slept sardined under a tarpaulin, and still managed to  discover that only one of the four possible small mammal species found on the mainland was present on the island,Ireland’s native Eurasian pygmy shrew. These results will soon be published in the Irish Naturalist Journal.

Libby Nixon, research assistant and zoology graduate, says of the experience: ‘we loved our time inIreland. It was great to be able to put our studies into practice and gain experience beyond university. I’m sure it will help us in the future - in fact I believe my time inIrelandhelped me in my successful application for an internship I have recently started. We had a brilliant summer, and found that Ireland has so much to offer.’

To find out more about Vole Patrol please contact Libby (libbynixon88@gmail.com)

If you would like to write an article for the BSP on your research then please contact the communication secretary (e.adams@kit.nl)