A couple of weeks ago I did a talk, sort of a short lecture, to this local conservation group about my research, and my trip to Mauritius. It was the first time I’d presented my work in this way and I really enjoyed filling in a bit of the background to the project.
The audience wasn’t huge, but it was really good practise for doing that sort of talk, and there were some really great and insightful questions at the end. For example, if the Fody population isn’t limited by needing to find food, why are they still territorial? The answer (partly provided by my supervisor Deepa), is that territories also provide other benefits like disease regulation, and also that evolutionary tendencies will control behaviour even if their original purpose is no longer necessary.
They also had cake and biscuits. Great evening all around!