Weta waste part of student's summer job description

Weta waste and penguin proliferation part of students’ summer job description

It might seem Lincoln University student Morgan Shields got the short end of the stick when the Department of Ecology was handing out summer scholar assignments—his involves collecting weta droppings.

This notion could be exacerbated by his fellow summer scholar Paige Lawson, who he is sharing the University’s little portable lab at Punakaiki on the West Coast with, having an assignment which involves counting cute little penguins.

However, he says it is “awesome”.

Their work is part of the Punakaiki Coastal Research Project. The land was once used for mining but due to its proximity to the Westland Black Petrel bird’s breeding ground, the only one in the world, this was stopped. Mining company Rio Tinto acquired the site in 2005 and decided to gift it to the community, and it is now a nature reserve.

Lincoln University became a member of the partnership between Conservation Volunteers New Zealand, Rio Tinto, and the Department of Conservation (which manages the site) earlier this year.

It is leading research into the recovery of the area by looking at invertebrates, penguin breeding and the petrel colony.

Like other students the pair supplement their income over the summer break by working, and are paid to do the research, though their jobs are probably a bit different to what many of their peers are doing.

They are ensconced in the Ecolab, a relocatable hut which provides a clean laboratory space for tasks such as examination of insect specimens and collection of DNA samples.

Morgan, an undergraduate Entomology student, moved up from Dunedin to study at Lincoln.

His research assesses the role of insects such as dung beetles, tree weta and ants in seed dispersal. He is marking native dung beetles with fluorescent dye to observe their dispersal behaviour in the lab and their natural environment. Using an ultraviolet lamp, he can observe the marked beetle’s walkabouts at night and the fluorescent trail they leave behind.

He wants to find out how far they travel to find dung and if it contains native seeds, and if so, which plant species. He is also delving into how much dung they can recycle and how deep they bury it.

The weta droppings (known as frass) are being collected from weta “motels” (wooden boxes with a tunnel entrance to keep them safe from predators), to determine if they contains seeds from their diet.

Paige is trying to estimate the size of the little blue penguin population in the reserve, locate their nests, and assess their reproductive success.

She will also use artificial nest boxes specifically designed to receive a camera with the aim of filming penguin activities without disturbing the birds or damaging their nest.

Morgan says a summer scholarship is “not just a rewarding summer job but is more so an opportunity to conduct real research while being an undergraduate”, and is also valuable for experience and establishing new contacts.

He could be trialling new methods or studying questions that have never been looked at in the proposed context.

“It’s exciting being on the forefront of current research.’’

He says one of the best parts of a summer scholarship is the field work.

“Field work means going to remote or very neat locations and seeing and doing some pretty awesome things such as climbing mountains in the search for weevils, determining giant weta populations on a predator free island, or hanging out in the Westland rain forest observing tree weta, penguins and endemic dung beetles.’’

Both should have some interesting tales about their summer holiday jobs to tell next year when they are back at Lincoln.

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