Hey WILDLABS! As we welcome our latest team members to the crew, I thought I'd re-introduce myself as well since it's been a few years (also yes, I want my sprout badge, and my original posts seem to be MIA...)

I joined the WILDLABS team back in 2018, right after finishing my undergrad studies in organismal biology and wildlife ecology at Scripps College in California. Based at WWF in the US, I started as an intern keen to support the advancement of conservation tech after some formative, frustrating, and in hindsight, quite funny initial adventures in the space. From 2019-2021, I shifted to a part-time consultancy role as I pursued my Master's degree in the Human Dimensions of Natural Resources Department at Colorado State University, where I am now an affiliate faculty member.

I've been back full-time with WILDLABS at WWF since early 2021, enjoying remote work from beautiful Boulder, Colorado. I lead our WILDLABS research program focused on leveraging the social science skills I gained in my master's program to support our systems-level investigations into collective challenges and opportunities across the conservation tech sector. Lately, this has been focused on our Movement Ecology horizon scan work (keep your eyes out for our forthcoming publication and resulting community projects!) as well as continuing the State of Conservation Technology assessments and bigger-picture fundraising and strategy. I'll also be welcoming a new research team member shortly, based in Argentina, who will support us in running a second horizon scan focused on emerging innovations in bioacoustics. 

Looking back through this thread, it is such a joy to reflect on how much this community and our team have grown over the years, with so many more exciting developments ahead. Cheers to our collective progress, and thank you for all that you do to make our community what it is!

Talia

Hi @alexrood , I would normally be quite sceptical, as there's been quite a lot of work over here on what's called the 'shuRoo' (because of course that's what it would be called in Australia), and it doesn't seem to have as much of a beneficial effect as one might hope (e.g. https://meridian.allenpress.com/australian-zoologist/article-abstract/42/3/690/472529/Roo-the-day-evaluating-the-ShuRoo-for-prevention). However, given that it involves two researchers with a wealth of knowledge about macropods and deterrents (and the very same authors of the ShuRoo experimental trial linked to above), I am much, much more optimisitic! Shall be watching (or listening to?) this one with great interest and thanks for sharing!

Cheers,

Rob

Sound deterrents to prevent collisions with Kangaroos in Australia have been sold for many years. None have been shown to work. Whether the Volkswagen device will be any better waits to be seen. Collision data will have to be collected for a while to see if the VW device has any effect on collision rate.

That is an interesting concept, and it would be great if something out there worked. In the meantime, I will try not to drive at dusk 🦘

At one point, I knew the "sonic" animal guards were the most stolen components of cars. You head in, get groceries, and come out, and they are gone. They weren't on the car long enough for me to confirm that would work