Virginia

Hello. I haven't written for a while as I have been adjusting to life in the USA and staying very busy with my dissertation research. The research is going well, so I'm taking a short break this evening to write a blog post and share a few photos from Virginia. 

This first photo is a Wood Duck feather sitting on the root of an old Oak tree. Wood Ducks are extremely beautiful and very rare birds. They nest in hollows in large, old trees. It is incredibly important to preserve old growth forests because many bird species (including the species that I'm researching for my dissertation, African Grey Parrots) nest in holes in trees. Large species of birds require large, old trees, especially trees with some decay - the birds can nest in the hollow area that is left after termites eat some of the wood or some of the wood has decomposed. I've been researching bird nesting behaviour, and I am constantly reminded of the importance of old growth forest ecosystems for the survival of beautiful birds. 

 This picture is a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly which is the state insect of Virginia. I have seen many beautiful Tiger Swallowtails in the past month. More animal welfare research is showing that insects may be sentient, cognitive beings. This research has led to discussions whether we prioritize animal (e.g. laboratory rodent) welfare over insect welfare due to biases in our thinking. Seeing beautiful butterflies and thinking about the conservation work that has been done to save butterflies like the Monarch, makes me wonder if we have a bias to protect insects that we find aesthetically pleasing. If bees looked like Tiger Swallowtails, would it be easier for us to save them? We should remember that insecticides impact beautiful insects too.

This is a picture of pink Dogwood blossoms on a sunny day. The Dogwood is the state tree of Virginia and is a native flowering tree. The blossoms are usually white, but there are pink varieties. I really like trees, especially the Dogwood. I think that my love of animals contributes to my love of the Dogwood Tree because the word "Dog" is in its name. 

This is the Rappahannock River. I sat at a table looking over the river and entered dissertation research data into spreadsheets. I watched Osprey and Crows and Herons fly over the river. I believe the osprey and crows were playing in the breeze - feeling the wind under their wings and somersaulting around each other. I would like to research this play(?) behavior someday. One of the assignments from the taught portion of the MSc was on Play Behavior and I read a paper about corvid play. Animal welfare and behaviour scientists are increasingly interested in studying play behaviour as a positive welfare indicator. 

 This is a picture of my own very high welfare chickens, engaging in natural foraging behaviour. My dissertation research involves foraging behaviour of African Grey Parrots.

Finally, this is a picture of a hardwood forest of native trees after a rain. There are frogs living in that water who probably have very high welfare. I recently saw a couple of foxes in this spot. There are many native Virginia reptiles, birds, insects, fish and mammals that live as part of this woods. 

Positives and Negatives

The main thing that I have learned during the taught portion of this course and during my time living independently in Edinburgh is that things are not just black/white or good/bad. It is important to remember that life is complex. Occasionally animal rights campaigns focus very specifically on a single, very emotive issue. It is easy to look at these campaigns and think that there are very clear right/wrong, good/bad sides in the debate. Usually, once you take the time to look more critically and talk to the parties involved, you will realize that the issue is more complicated and nuanced. We all have a psychological predisposition to categorize things, often into "good" or "bad". This categorization can occur very quickly in our minds, often as the result of our emotions or limited information. It is important to be aware of this tendency because black and white thinking can lead to a lot of problems.

I am a "clicker" trainer. I studied animal training with Susan G. Friedman, Ph.D. and the Karen Pryor Academy before applying for this MSc course. I also have a Bachelor's degree in Psychology (which included a course on animal training). The way that I train animals is often described as "force free", "science-based", or "positive reinforcement". Like most phrases in language, these descriptors don't fully explain or capture the entirety of my training methods and often cause confusion. 

Scientists are wonderful because they analytically and critically break down concepts and give these concepts names or labels. For example, entomologists give names to insects. We often say that these scientists, "discover" insects, but really, the insects already existed on Earth and contributed to the ecosystem and would have continued to live their lives regardless of whether they were ever seen by scientists. Scientists just describe them and give them names. 

Often, the names that scientists come up with have limitations. When Psychologist, B. F. Skinner named components of learning/training he gave them the names "Positive Reinforcement" "Negative Reinforcement" "Positive Punishment" and "Negative Punishment". For Skinner, Positive simply meant adding something and Negative meant removing something. Reinforcement simply meant causing a behaviour to increase and Punishment meant causing a behaviour to decrease. All of the four components are part of learning. None of them are inherently Good or Bad. Unfortunately, the words that Skinner used are emotionally charged and have other meanings. Many people see those labels and think that Positive is good and Negative & Punishment are bad. That isn't actually the case within Skinner's learning theory. 

I strive to be an ethical, scientific, respectful animal trainer who has a strong interest in promoting good animal welfare. It is ok to say that I do "Positive Reinforcement Training", but if I am teaching a dog to sit  - shaping that behaviour by giving treat rewards as the dog bends his rear legs and moves his rear closer to the ground (Positively Reinforcing the sit) - and the dog offers an unwanted behaviour like running toward me, I will not reward that running behaviour. The running behaviour will be Negatively Punished because I will put my treats away, removing them. 

A horse-trainer who taught us told me that she wishes Skinner had chosen the words "Additive" and "Removal" instead of Positive and Negative. I think she had a good point. 

Now, to make things more interesting - lets get into the debate over training devices...

Scotland is considering banning Electronic Dog-Training Collars (which deliver an electric shock) because they are thought to be bad for dog welfare. I once saw a husky with infected wounds on his neck that were  in the shape of the metal electrodes of an Electronic collar. This dog's owner had not noticed these wounds and appeared not to have noticed that the level of electric shock delivered to the dog was inappropriate and inhumane. Unfortunately, I don't have proof that these wounds were definitely from an electronic collar as the collar was not on when I saw the dog. I do have access to a few studies that have shown that owners and professional dog trainers often deliver shocks inconsistently using these collars (inaccurate timing and inappropriate level of shock). I also know that I could not use an electronic collar to train a bird. A primary interest of mine is training pet parrots and I choose not to spend my time practicing training methods that I can't apply to all species. 

The Kennel Club in the UK is calling for a ban on electronic shock collars. Veterinarian, Heather Bacon from the Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education has also made a statement against electric collars and in favour of the ban. My MSc programme is affiliated with The Jeanne Marchig Centre for Animal Welfare Education, and I personally support banning electronic collars.

However, I have learned to read scientific literature and to think about welfare topics critically during this course. I have also interacted with people who I respect who train dogs using electronic collars. If you had asked me about dog training at the very beginning of this course, I would have said, "I am a positive, force free trainer and I am in opposition to trainers who use shock collars" and had a heated, emotional argument about why the type of training I had studied with Susan G. Friedman and The Karen Pryor Academy was Good and why other types of training were Bad.

Now, I have read the scientific studies of dog training and welfare. I have learned that there are too few studies on this topic, and the existing published studies are imperfect. I have also learned that if a shock is delivered at the exactly appropriate time and at a low level, it may not cause the dog to suffer. I have learned that electronic collars have been used to train dogs to avoid endangered animals in conservation programs (Dale et al. 2013), and I can see the benefit to the welfare of the endangered species in those cases. My view has changed from thinking that electronic collar training was all Bad to thinking that it is a more complex issue. I still support the Scottish ban because I think that there is potential to cause harm by using electronic collars inappropriately. One study (Cooper et al. 2014) indicated that even professional dog trainers who were chosen by electronic collar companies used the collars inconsistently and, in my opinion, incorrectly. 

It is important to read scientific literature, think critically, talk to people who have different opinions on animal welfare issues to prevent your good intentions from having unanticipated consequences.

References:

Cooper, J.J. et al., 2014. The welfare consequences and efficacy of training pet dogs with remote electronic training collars in comparison to reward based training. PLoS ONE, 9(9).

Dale, A.R. et al., 2013. The acquisition and maintenance of dogs’ aversion responses to kiwi (Apteryx spp.) training stimuli across time and locations. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 146(1-4), pp.107–111. Available at: http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0168159113001020.

Thinking about America

Hello! I have recently finished writing a paper about sheep welfare assessment. :)

My last post included a link to a lovely livestream of manatees in Florida, USA. I hope you enjoyed that because wildlife camera livestreams are my favorite way to relax at the moment.

I just found a really nice livestream of beautiful bald eagles in Washington DC:

http://www.eagles.org/dceaglecam/

I assume that a lot of people reading my blog are my friends and family members in the USA. If so, you might not be very excited about all this American footage, but I am enjoying it as I plan my trip home to the USA.

I think that the US does a very good job working on wildlife conservation. (Shout out to anyone who worked on saving the California Condors!!) I am really looking forward to hiking on beautiful trails in the many wonderful American national and state parks.

I really love hill-walking here, but there is something special about old-growth hardwood forests that have never been felled for farming.

Scotland is unbelievably, incredibly beautiful, but it is shocking how much men have changed the landscape here. I like the move to "re-wild" Scotland by reintroducing plants and animals that were here centuries ago but have gone extinct in the wild. I think the Scottish did a great job reintroducing the beaver, but as someone who has a beaver living literally in her own back yard in the USA, I have a new appreciation of how many native species still live in the US.

I have heard encouraging news about mountain lions making a comeback on the East Coast. (They are stunning animals and will help control the deer population and help our ecosystems.) I really hope that more Americans will realize how lucky we are to have native species of plants and animals and continue to work to preserve them. I know that I have a new appreciation for animals such as beavers and skunks that are often considered to be "pests" in the USA after seeing them displayed in the Edinburgh Zoo and hearing zoo visitors excitedly exclaim about these amazing creatures. Beavers help the forests and broader environment. Every species of plant and animal plays an important role in the ecosystem. Animals like the Mountain Lion, Bobcat, Wolf and Bald Eagle are awesomely gorgeous and majestic.

We honour animals like bald eagles by using them as symbols of the US. Unfortunately, we need to remember that we almost killed all of the bald eagles in the USA and they are only just starting to make a comeback after lots of work and dedication from American wildlife conservationists and rehabilitators. Extremely tragically, thirteen bald eagles were recently found dead in Maryland .Work still needs to be done to protect even this iconic species.

 I hope to become a licensed wildlife rehabilitator at some point in the future, and for now, I am doing my part to conserve American species by owning and preserving 10 acres of pristine hardwood forest. I have "liked" a lot of parks and conservation groups on social media and I sign petitions and write to legislators to protect threatened species.

I have always loved the beautiful forests in the USA and felt patriotic about 'America the beautiful'. The trees, streams, grasslands and wildlife are what I most look forward to seeing again when I leave the UK. I really look forward to visiting national and state parks. I think that the incredibly diversity of our natural environments is the most wonderful thing about the USA. (Although, I admit that the main reason I travel to the UK is because I find it so incredibly beautiful here, too!)

I worry about our ecosystems, especially the smallest and most important parts of the ecosystems upon which everything else relies. We need to protect and value our insects. Wild animals, especially amphibians, are extremely threatened, and they need insects to eat. Larger animals eat smaller ones, so it could be catastrophic if amphibians actually became extinct.

We also need little creatures like bees and worms so that we can have food to eat (although we could actually eat these, I mean that they provide us with food indirectly by pollinating our crops and fertilizing our soil). Students from my MSc course will be doing important research with bees in America.

Even though there are many challenges to protecting wildlife which can make our work feel incredibly overwhelming at times, we can always start in our own smaller, local environments. I plan to work in my own country after I go home because I believe that bio-diversity makes America beautiful.

I believe that human diversity makes America beautiful too!

There are always rainbows...

Sometimes life is tough. Some mornings you wake up in the dark with high winds pummeling rain against your kitchen windows while you try to cook breakfast. Some days you wake, get yourself ready, and move your body outside only to be pelted in the face with horizontal ice-rain. Raindrops cover your glasses and you must remove them to be able to see. You finally get to your lectures which are spent arguing about the meaning of life and death or learning to quantify vast quantities of suffering. You learn the ways in which the problems that you are trying to solve are connected to larger global issues that are totally overwhelming. January has been a difficult and dark month, but it is now over.

Today is a beautiful, sunny day! I am getting work done on my assignments, including that manatee enclosure design one that I mentioned in a previous blog.
Manatees are vulnerable. Despite the fact that they have no natural predators, they are very threatened by habitat loss by people building developments in Florida which drain water from this beautiful river. They are also frequently injured by boats (cut by propellers) and ingest fishing hooks, lines and rubbish. Some people are working hard to save the manatees and conserve this species, and manatees are making a come-back. It is so nice to see so many wild manatees in this live webcam stream from Blue Spring State Park, but it is important to remember that there are very few total manatees alive in the wild. We need to continue to work to protect them.

It is all too easy to see these manatees and think, "Look how many there are! Everything is good! We don't need to worry about them anymore." It is also all to easy to read about the mass extinction of animal and plant species that is happening right now and feel completely depressed and unable to appreciate any good news. In order to work on challenging issues and help make the world a better place, it is important to have a balanced view and try to avoid black and white (all good or all bad) thinking.

Icy rain might pelt you in the face, but there are always rainbows. There are beautiful rainbows, but there is also rain. I think it's important to remember that suffering and happiness are both natural parts of life.

This is my opinion, and I'm not sure how it fits into Animal Welfare Ethics frameworks, but I will be discussing that during our final week of classes. 

International Edinburgh

I have 48 days left in Edinburgh before I go home to the USA where I will complete my dissertation. I say, "home to the USA" like "home" is a totally clear-cut concept. Edinburgh has begun to feel like my home just in time for me to move on.

Luckily, I'm not the only person in my course getting ready to travel. Many of us will visit different countries during the dissertation section of the degree. Edinburgh is extremely international and many of my friends here lived in multiple countries and continents before moving here. Most of us plan to continue traveling after completing our degrees. It is lovely to be surrounded by people who grew up as global citizens.We all have specific places that are part of us, but we don't have very simple answers to the question, "Where are you from?"

My response, "England/Wales and all the culturally distinct parts of Virginia, USA" is less interesting than hearing about all of the places that my friends call home. Now, Scotland feels like home even though it is surprisingly different than anywhere I've lived before. 

While I'm thinking about how Edinburgh has come to feel like my home, I'll share a few things that I love about living in this city. 

• There are a lot of rainbows here: 

• It snows just enough for it to be beautiful:
  

• Edinburgh is full of ground-breaking scientific research:

• There are many amazing events involving fire:

• The buildings are beautiful:

There are far too many wonderful things about this city to count. I am very thankful for my time here and for everything that I have learned. I especially appreciate the insight I have gained from discussing global issues with people from all over the world and learning about international animal welfare legislation during lectures.

Living in the Birthplace of the Enlightenment has been quite enlightening. :)

New Year's resolutions during a Master's degree

Today was our first day of lectures after the winter break. It was good to be back in my normal routine.

A few of my plans for a good routine this semester/year:

• Wake up at 6:00 am every day.
• Meditate for 10 minutes in the morning and again right before bed
• Print lecture slides in the veterinary library and study for an hour before lectures start.
• Read/write/work in the veterinary library after lectures every day 
• Take an exercise class at the gym every weekend
• Prepare lunches and snacks the night before lectures
• Work steadily, set small goals and allow plenty of time for work on assignments
• Run errands on Saturdays
• Walk up Arthur's seat regularly
• Care for myself (go to the doctor for a check-up, get my hair cut, and do little things I tend to put off)
• Drink lots of tea
• Shop at Jordan Valley (amazing grocery shop that sells lots of vegan food, herbal teas, dates, and health food) 

This semester looks really good - we are getting into animal welfare applications and applying what we have learned to practical work in the real world. We will be assessing the welfare of livestock at an auction/market and I'll be doing a poster project in which I'll design an ideal enclosure for a manatee. 

If you happen to know what type of housing manatees in zoos or aquaria really want, please let me know. 

Over the sea to Skye

I visited the Isle of Skye during my winter break. It was incredible! I hiked along the beautiful Fairy Pools to the Cuillin mountains. I toured Talisker Distillery and tasted whiskey for the first time since I've lived in Scotland. We drove through the highlands and were really pleasantly surprised that the roads were extremely well maintained and easy to navigate. It was an unbelievably beautiful drive. The sheep in the Isle of Skye have awesome curly horns and we saw wild Red Deer, feral goats, 'hairy coos' aka Highland Cows, and beautiful horses. Here are some pictures of the trip:

A fairy pool

Fairy pools below the mountains

Cuillin Mountains