Where? Where? Wedgie! 2018 Day 5 : 05-05-2018

For a change of scenery we headed indoors today to a laboratory at the University of Tasmania. Part of James’ research is to find out if lead poisoning is an issue in Tassie Wedgies. See how part of the process is done in today’s video.

There’s a lot that’s not known about Wedgies in Tasmania, including if lead poisoning is a problem. In other species of eagles from other parts of the world this has been a problem. To help find out James has been getting bone samples from dead (and frozen) Wedgies. He has to break the bone into a small sample that is then dried in an oven. Then the sample is sent to a specialised laboratory for analysis. 

James was careful not to contaminate the samples. All the utensils had to be wiped down with ethanol to clean them every time a new bone was handled. 

We’ve come to Swansea tonight to help out with a public Where? Where? Wedgie! workshop tomorrow. These workshops are being run by our citizen science coordinator Dr Clare Hawkins right across Tasmania over the next few weeks leading up to the public surveys. Go to www.naturetrackers.com.au if you’d like to find one near you.

Todays T-shirt winner: black swan3 for great suggestions.