Andrew Roberts Treasurer

The more I learned, the more I understood the threats that these species face, which pushed me towards a career in conservation biology.

In 2013 I completed my degree in Ecology at Cardiff University, and later went to Swansea University to undertake my Masters in Environmental Biology. I began my journey with a real interest in seabirds, because I am intrigued by how such small animals can survive in such hostile conditions.

I spent much of my time in university concentrating on their ecology, and during this time I studied the habitat use and predation of Manx shearwaters, how gulls steal food from puffins on Skomer Island in Wales, urban freshwater and grassland habitat use by gulls in Cardiff, and the energetic costs of flight in the wandering albatross.

I also spent a University Sandwich Year in Seychelles where I worked with Georgia on various shark and turtle projects, including my own project investigating the timing and spatial distribution of turtles coming ashore to nest. I was also lucky enough to be involved in deploying and retrieving underwater monitoring equipment, and to spend a year surfing in warm water!

It was here that I became more curious about the species that live under the waves, not just those which fly above them. My main area of interest is in the movement and spatial ecology of marine and coastal animals. I am interested in where animals go, how they get there, why they might go there, what the energetic cost is, and how all these factors ultimately affect population levels.

I am really keen to incorporate ideas and techniques from different fields to complement the biological approach to species conservation.

Understanding how species interact and compete for limited resources is an important part of their conservation, and fields such as engineering offer innovative means of collecting and interpreting valuable data from elusive and secretive animals.