Key facts

Overview

Thinking of applying? Explore materials or revisit our online open event. Any questions for the team? - we're happy to talk to you at any time. Contact the Course Director and Programme Manager:est@conted.ox.ac.uk.

Field techniques for surveying mammals and reptiles is a short, stand-alone training course which is taught entirely online. It can be taken from anywhere in the world and is international in its use of case studies. It will appeal to a variety of students and practitioners in conservation and management who want to improve their ability to conduct surveys.

This course can be taken with academic credit (assignment of up to 2,000 words) or without academic credit. This page relates to taking the course WITH CREDIT. For information about taking this course without academic credit, please click here.

Description

Each topic is covered via guided reading, online activities, and discussion forums. All the reading material is embedded into the course, but students additionally have access to the University's electronic resources and online journals, which they are expected to use for some of the activities. Participants are expected to study on, and contribute to, the course for around 10-15 hours per week. If the course is being taken for credit, participants will need to complete an assessment. There is a suggested calendar of activity which students can use to assist them in completing the course within the allocated five week duration of the course.

Field Techniques for Surveying Mammals and Reptiles is part of the new Postgraduate Certificate in Ecological Survey Techniques.

Minimum IT Requirements

Please note that this course is taken online; to participate in our online courses we recommended a minimum computer specification.

Programme details

Topics covered by the course in Field Techniques for Surveying Mammals and Reptiles include:

• Introduction to mammals and reptiles
• Rationale for surveying mammals and reptiles - why survey?
• Conducting a survey - basic considerations
• Choosing a survey technique: direct and indirect techniques
• Direct techniques: observations, total counts, trapping and restraint
• Indirect techniques: field sign surveys, camera traps and surveillance
• Designing a sampling strategy or protocol
• Recording and storing data
• Data application - making sure you have the right data to accomplish your survey goals
• Case-study: location of Eurasian badger setts and the distribution of their territories, Wytham Woods, UK

To Sample the course

The final topic of the online course Field Techniques for Surveying Mammals and Reptiles is available. The practical uses Google Maps to explore and explain the distribution of badger setts and territories in Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire. To sample the practical please visit the topic website

Staff

Dr Jocelyne Hughes

Role: Director

Biography

I am Programme Director in Ecological Survey Techniques. Since 1998, I have been a Departmental Lecturer in the Department...more for Continuing Education responsible for directing a portfolio of environmental courses. Previously I was a college lecturer at St. Catherine's College, University of Oxford, a research fellow at University College London, and I have held University Lectureships at the University of Reading (1990-98) and the University of Melbourne, Australia (1987-89).

I am a Trustee of the Oxfordshire Nature Conservation Forum; member of the Institute of British Geographers and the British Ecological Society; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society; member of the Commonwealth Scholars alumni network; organiser of my local Wildlife Conservation Group working with volunteers to carry out wildlife conservation projects.

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)1865 286948
Email: jocelyne.hughes@conted.ox.ac.uk

Teaching

I direct the Postgraduate Certificate in Ecological Survey Techniques; previously I directed the two OUDCE Undergraduate Diplomas in Environmental Conservation; and I have organised and developed a variety of short courses for professionals and the general public in the Environmental Sciences and Biology, including the annual Oxford Energy Futures conference.

I teach and supervise on a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the University of Oxford, including the MSc in Water Science, Policy & Management in the School of Geography & the Environment, and the Postgraduate Diploma in International Wildlife Conservation Practice in the Department of Zoology (WildCRU). I am an external examiner at the Open University.

Research interests

My research focuses on the ecology, hydrology and management of wetlands. I have a particular interest in the ecological importance of microflow environments provided by aquatic plants in rivers and wetlands; water and nutrient cycling in wetlands; wetland vegetation dynamics; constructed wetlands.

Currently I carry out field research and monitoring into plant-water relationships at Marley Fen in Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire. I have carried out field work in a diversity of wetland habitats in Tunisia, Australia, Antarctica, Guatemala and the UK. I am a research associate at the School of Geography & the Environment at Oxford.

Publications

Selected Publications: Zhong, S & Hughes, JMR 2002 Laboratory flume studies of microflow environments of aquatic plants Hydrological Processes 16, 3279-3289

Zhong, S & Hughes JMR 2001 Turbulent structure of open-channel flow over aquatic plants: a laboratory flume study. In (ed LI Guifen) Proceedings of the 29th International Association of Hydraulic Engineering & Research, Beijing

Hughes, JMR & Heathwaite, AL (eds) 1995 Hydrology & Hydrochemistry of British Wetlands , John Wiley & Sons, Chichester. 486pp

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Dr Chris Newman

Role: Tutor

Dr. Chris Newman, is a Senior Research Associate with the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford, who joined the group...more back in 1991. Chris is the co-ordinator for the WildCRU’s Badger Project, specialising in population dynamics and the effects of climate change and disease in population regulation. He collaborates extensively with other researchers internationally and is an author of over 50 peer reviewed papers and book chapters on many diverse aspects of mammal ecology, as well as work advocating public and corporate participation in conservation initiatives.

Chris undertook his D.Phil. on Population Ecology, Demography and Parasitology at Oxford University. He is an inter-disciplinary biologist, drawing together insights from demography, animal behaviour, physiology, evolution, genetics and parasitology, along with expertise in geology and forestry, to synthesise new ideas and comprehensive approaches to understand wildlife biology. Chris is the Mammals Officer for the Department of Zoology’s Ethical Review Committee and the WildCRU’s Animal Care and Welfare Officer.

Chris has run courses and tutored for Oxford University’s Department of Continuing Education for many years, and is also an experienced Principal Investigator with the Earthwatch Institute, currently running mammal monitoring expeditions in Nova Scotia, Canada.

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Assessment methods

The University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education offers Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS) points for the course. Participants contributing to all the forums and successfully completing the assessment will obtain 10 CATS-equivalent points (FHEQ level 7) which may be counted towards a postgraduate qualification.

• Students must engage with, and contribute to all the discussion forums via the course VLE
• Students must submit a summative written assignment of up to 2,000 words. Students will have to formulate the research questions for a given scenario to do with mammal or reptile surveys, and then provide the justification and detailed evaluation of their chosen mammal or reptile survey protocol. Pass mark set at 50%. Work awarded 70% or over will qualify for a distinction.

Teaching methods

Scholarships

Details of funding opportunities, including grants, bursaries, loans, scholarships and benefit information are available on our financial assistance page.

Fee options

Programme Fee

Course fee: £675.00

Apply for this course

Programmes including this module

This module can be studied as part of these programmes:

• Ecological survey techniques