Natasha Lloyd has been all over the globe researching endangered species. Her work with some of the world's most fragile animal populations has been everything from exotic (birds in Africa) to quite local (the Vancouver Island marmot) and she brings it all back to her home town this weekend.
Lloyd, now a six-year veteran researcher based at the Calgary Zoo, will be the guest speaker at the Prince George Public Library's Bob Harkins branch at 1 p.m. on Saturday, discussing her travels, showing photos of the animals she has worked with both in captivity and in the wild, and talking about the scientific dirty work that underpins the global conservation movement.
"Two of the main examples we learned about in university were the Mauritius kestrel and the black-footed ferret, and I've gotten to work with both of those. I feel really lucky," she told The Citizen during a break between her master's degree thesis work and preparing the powerpoint presentation for this weekend.
Her most recent work, and the subject of her thesis, is the study of the black-tailed prairie dog found only in Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan. This species at risk is the primary food of the black-footed ferret, or at least it was until that species of ferret went almost extinct. A surprise pocket of the ferrets was discovered (a farm dog brought the body of one home and triggered a frenzied recovery effort) in Wyoming in 1964, and a captive breeding program was born.
When the number of ferrets grew large enough to consider re-introduction to the wild, Canada soon got its chance to have some. Nobody dared release them into their natural habitat here, however, until it was known that the wobbly black-tailed prairie dog numbers could sustain the new (old) predator. Lloyd was part of the team investigating this.
"It's the first joint conservation program involving predator and prey species at the same time," she explained. And when those first ferrets were let loose in 2009, she was there to see it. "It was quite emotional, and really exciting." So far, the program is showing early signs of success.
The first post-extinction wild kits in Canadian history were born this past spring, and they are under close watch by Lloyd's team.
"That was the highlight of the summer," she said.
On Saturday she will put a strong focus on the New Noah program that kick-started her career. Few Canadians get to take part in the international biologist development initiative. Based in the British Channel Islands and partnered with Wildlife Preservation Canada in this country, it gathers together talented emerging biologists and puts them deep into cutting edge animal research projects. Lloyd was sent first to Jersey for orientation then on to the African island of Mauritius where she got hands-on experience with a population of kestrel - literally the textbook case - that not long ago numbered only four adults but through careful management and rigorous science now shows signs of future sustainability.
"They (New Noah organizers) stress internships and community outreach back home so we bring our new skills back and put them to use," Lloyd said.
The photos she has will be interesting to the viewer, she said, and she has a lot of stories she is gathering up from memories and journals that she is looking forward to sharing. She will make a room-front presentation followed by question and answer period. Anyone interested in conservation, zoology or animal biology is encouraged to attend. There is no admission charge.
