Research themes

Our research areas are diverse, drawing upon expertise through collaborations.

Chemical contamination of freshwaters

Otters are top predators in river ecosystems, making them excellent indicators of environmental health.

Using DNA extracted from muscle tissues, Bayesian clustering and GIS to identify the genetic structure of the UK otter population.

Chemical profiling of otter spraint has the potential to provide detail such as population size and structure and home range size.

Using macro-parasites of the otter to investigate how density-dependent and independent factors regulate parasite populations.

Prey availability is one of the key parameters limiting otter distribution, but studies of otter diet in much of the UK are limited.

Research looking at geographic variation in skull size and shape.

Incremental cementum lines were used to assess the age structure of sub-adult and mature wild otters received by the project.

Researching seasonal breeding by examining the uterus and foetuses found in utero.