On 28-29 August, Kamil Bartoń and Aida Parres Lluch attended the annual meeting of the Movement Ecology Special Interest Group at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Meetings in this series bring together a community of researchers, practitioners and students from around the world working on a wide range of topics in movement ecology, including the movement of animals in aerial, aquatic and terrestrial environments. This year’s meeting was dedicated to animal and human movement and their interactions. It involved a series of plenaries, invited and contributed talks and posters. Aida gave a talk presenting her study of the home range formation and the possible strategies that wide-ranging species can adopt in this process, using the brown bear as an example. She also addressed the potential impact of outdoor activities on how home ranges are formed. This study was part of her PhD thesis. On the next day, Kamil talked on modelling of the use of directional information (such as that carried by scent) by animals during a movement process, and integration of the collected information as „mental maps” to provide an increasingly accurate representation of the surrounding landscape. As well as presenting their research, the two members of our lab had the opportunity to meet researchers in their field, learn more about new research methods, sample renowned Scottish cuisine or engage in building sandcastles on the St. Andrews beach. Unfortunately, due to global environmental change, they could not enjoy the typical Scottish weather.
Meetings of this kind are not just about scientific presentations and discussions; they should also serve to inspire change. In this context, we were pleased to note that the meeting was fully vegan, meaning that all the food served at the event was free of animal products. Cutting down on animal based products is a pivotal step in reducing our carbon footprint and curbing pollution. We believe that this is an important step in the right direction and scientific conferences, particularly ecological ones, should set a good example for reducing their environmental impact. It is also noteworthy that some researchers in their presentations addressed the environmental effects of their research methods, such as pollution by discarded transmitters and tags attached to tracked animals.
by Aida Parres and Kamil Bartoń