Sabiya Sheikh

• Assisted with trapping and handling badgers, collecting biological samples, vaccinating them and releasing them back at their trap locations.

Thesis title - Mapping seabird and forage fish interactions to maximise conservation gains

• Organize and conduct fieldwork to track seabirds, collect dietary samples and survey forage fish distribution data in an island ecosystem
• Process seabird tracking data to extract foraging trip data and trip metrics
• Summarize findings from field for collaborators, conferences and donors.

• Launched the dhole programme's first project focusing on dholes' behavioural ecology outside protected areas.
• Independently applied for research permits from government offices & private agroforest plantation managers.
• Planned and implemented fieldwork using a range of methods, including direct observations, camera trapping, indirect sign surveys and passive acoustic recording to collect data.
• Interviewed 275 local residents to collect information about my study species and create a local informant network.
• Trained and oversaw field assistants & interns in field methods and data processing.
• Curation of social media content and a fundraising campaign to support the running of the project.
• Co-authored a children's comic that will be distributed in our field site to create awareness about our study species.
• I am currently processing my data to understand the vocal behaviour of dholes and examine carnivore diversity and interspecies interactions in the context of a gradient of human activity in an agroforest landscape.

• Trapped small mammals to collect biological samples such as blood and tissue to test for presence of zoonotic pathogens in shared human-wildlife landscapes.
• Conducted literature reviews to enhance field protocol.

• Analysed a citizen science photo dataset from across the UK to identify, count and measure fish carried by puffins.

• Worked with a large rabies passive surveillance database to understand the spatial spread of rabies in a large metropolis.

• Mapped Antarctic seals and their habitats using high resolution satellite images and QGIS with great accuracy.

• Deployed and retrieved over 40 camera traps in parks across London to monitor urban hedgehog populations.

Thesis title - Assessing global long-term population trends of butterflies using the Living Planet Index method.

• Performed intensive literature search to collate butterfly population data from unpublished and published sources.
• Used geometric additive model and linear mixed effects models to calculate population index and to identify potential drivers of observed population trends respectively. Observed an overall decline in global butterfly populations.
• Presented these results in form of a scientific paper and oral presentation achieving a merit (66%) in the research module.

• Handled and restrained over 400 seabirds.
• Assisted with collection of morphometric data, taking blood samples and transponder insertion/ringing.
• Conducted seabird surveys and nest monitoring at Stony Point Seabird Colony.
• Assisted with post-mortem examination of seabirds for disease surveillance.

Thesis title - How does cat behaviour influence parasite infection risk

• Tested over 100 archived and fresh cat fecal samples to detect parasite eggs and used GPS tags, animal borne cameras and owner questionnaire to record behaviour of cats that may potentially influence transmission of a zoonotic parasite; toxocara cati.
• Examined relationship between cat behaviour and infection with toxocara cati using binary logistic regression.