Rob, from Poulton Le Fylde, has spent much of his spare time travelling to see specific wildlife species but eventually decided he wanted to turn his interest into something more.
“I’ve always been interested in wildlife and spend a lot of time traveling to see specific species, so I finally decided to try and make my hobby a career,” he explains. “I decided to turn that hobby into a rewarding career where I could actively help.”
Reaseheath College and University Centre’s Wildlife Ecology and Conservation degree offered the combination of scientific knowledge and practical experience he was looking for. Its modules covered the key sciences of biology and ecosystems, alongside practical field skills and conservation technology.
He was also impressed by the campus environment and the opportunity to learn alongside students studying other land-based subjects. Having Reaseheath Mini Zoo on campus was another highlight and he enjoyed spending lunch breaks there, chatting with fellow wildlife enthusiasts and discovering new interests.
“You’d always find someone interested in a topic that was completely obscure but incredibly fascinating,” he says.
One of Rob’s proudest achievements was completing his dissertation, which explored the relationship between conservation awareness campaigns and public participation in citizen science. Put simply, Rob wanted to find out whether people who show an interest in conservation online are actually more likely to do something to help wildlife. He investigated what’s known as the ‘value-action gap’ – the difference between what people care about and the actions they take as a result.
Using 10 years of Google Trends data alongside wildlife recording information from citizen science platforms such as iNaturalist and eBird, Rob examined whether increased online interest in conservation campaigns led to more people recording wildlife in the real world.
His findings highlighted an important challenge for conservation organisations. While campaigns regularly generated online interest, this rarely translated into measurable action. Only around one in eight significant spikes in online interest was followed by an increase in wildlife recording.
One notable exception was the Big Butterfly Count, which consistently encouraged participation. Rob found that campaigns with a clear invitation to get involved were more effective than those which simply raised awareness.
His research also revealed that public interest and participation had not significantly increased over the 10-year period, despite the growing availability of accessible citizen science platforms.
The quality of Rob’s research earned him the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Undergraduate Research at graduation, recognising the exceptional standard of his dissertation.
Ellie Rose, Programme Lead for Animal Sciences at Reaseheath, nominated Rob for the award, praising the complexity and academic quality of his work.
She said: “This was a very complex topic, which required many hours of investigation to determine appropriate campaigns to include and methods to standardise and compare trends. In a year that was personally very challenging for Rob, he independently researched and developed the analysis needed to investigate this little studied area and produced a dissertation with outstanding levels of academic writing, research and statistical analysis. It is easily of a publishable standard.”
For Rob, the award was an unexpected but welcome recognition of the work he had put into his dissertation.
“I didn’t expect to receive anything like this, but it was a fantastic surprise. When you spend so much time on a topic you can become a bit blinkered, so it was great to see the work was so well received.”
Rob is keen to develop his research further, exploring how conservation campaigns might influence bigger decisions, including young people’s choices to study natural sciences and public voting on conservation-related issues.
Looking ahead, his ambition is to work in rewilding or species reintroduction programmes, helping to restore some of the wildlife that has been lost or is under threat in England. He’s particularly interested in the recovery of species such as the pine marten and the role conservation can play in bringing them back.
For anyone considering a career in wildlife conservation, Rob’s advice is simple: go for it.
“It’s such a growing and rewarding sector to be involved in, and there are so many different roles available to suit a variety of strengths.”
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