Read more about Stuart’s work, the progress in his research, and his encounters with the meerkats in his field reports below.
August 2016 Field Report
Welcome to my August 2016 field update, and let’s start with some good news. When I last wrote, I reported on the new males at Pandora. At the time, two new wild males had joined the group, neither were comfortable with us being around, and data collection had temporarily ceased…March 2016 Field Report
It’s nearly eighteen months into the targeted vaccination study now, and I’m out in the Kalahari going over what has been happening with the population over that time. I’m particularly interested of course in those groups that I have been allowed to work with over this time, but you can’t…June 2015 Field Report
I have just been reading over my last report and reminding myself how the TB research has moved on in the intervening period. Summer 2014/2015 for me was about getting the central study in my PhD up and running: the vaccination project. There were a few hitches along the way…Nov/Dec 2014 Field Report
It’s been six months now since I last updated you with how things were going with the tuberculosis research. At that point I was in England planning for the main stage of my research and working out how best to tackle our questions. Now I am back out in the…June 2914 Field Report
I’m back in England now after a successful season in the Kalahari. I spent nearly four months out there in the end on this trip, and managed to sample 125 of the meerkats. I was really pleased with getting this number as that represented a good percentage of the population…Christmas 2013 Field Report
The first three months of the TB vaccination project have gone by at some speed, and have been a complete mixture of activities involving research, planning, and action. Having previously been familiar with the tuberculosis situation in cattle, I have spent a good deal of time reading up on the…