Thread by @realscientists

After I graduated from university I went to work with American Prairie Reserve in Montana and learn more about being a land management NGO!! If you ever get the chance to go there I highly recommend it @AmericanPrairie if you want to learn more go follow @DanielKinka

Whilst on the prairie I did all sorts of things! Conversed with guests, led tours, prepared the lodge for guests, did logistical things like taking guests to different accommodations across the reserve and delivering supplies where they were needed

I also got to help USFWS on their Black Footed Ferret/Prairie dog study in the Charles M Russell Wildlife Management Refuge! It was a dream to get to work to help protect ferrets! #blackmammalogists

I also got to spend time at Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and help their biologist with their Black Footed Ferret work! Which involved lots of spotlighting in the dark whilst listening to ABBA and dusting prairie dog towns for fleas!!

I got to attend my first Pow Wow and go out and survey the bison herd for the bison manager!! The prairie has the most amazing sunsets/sunrises and everything in between!! I also got to meet and work with folks from Nat Geo and other orgs which was awesome

I was blessed to be able to go to American Prairie and visit Montana which was on my list of places to visit. Funnily enough right before I finished my degree I connected with a biologist in Montana who was familiar with APR and they were visiting the UK

I got to go for lunch with them and they told me all about Montana before I arrived and as you would have it they actually knew the USFWS biologist who I ended up working with that summer! The world is very small and works in mysterious ways

After finishing my position at APR I went to Yellowstone! Another lifelong dream of mine...remember my obsession with wolves?! And I got to visit @RattlesnakeDen at WWF!! Dennis was a big part of why I ended up at APR after connecting on LinkedIn and badgering him with Q's

I actually got to see a wolf pack and a grizzly in Yellowstone! I was there in Nov right before the park closed but it was a dream come true for this #blackmammalogist

Remember the biologist from LinkedIn? I also got to go out and visit their place and their eco-tourism company! They have cabins on a creek where you can go and learn about bison and biology! There were no guests in Nov so I got to go and hang with the herd #BlackMamFam

Then I headed north! To find @beckoftheyukon and to go to a Kip Moore concert in Spokane hahaha. I am so stoked I connected with Beck through Twitter and had this opportunity to learn more about hunters and management in MT! #blackmammalogists #blackmamfam

After MT I headed north again back to BC!! I went to visit friends in Nelson and all my old colleagues at the FLNRO office!! It was super fun and then I headed up to golden to visit my friend who had moved there and serendipitously bumped into an old friend from NZ...

I didn't want to go back to the UK so I bought a flight to Australia...I wanted to go and volunteer on a fruitbat project I had connected with and find work in Aus so off I went... that is an orphaned wallaby! and some bats! #blackmammalogists

Getting a job in AUS wasn't as easy a task as I thought it would be, even as an citizen, but I made lots of great connections there and took a break from wildlife work (sort of) I worked at kathmandu - an outdoor store and a bar in melbourne...the path to mammalogy =/= linear

Working at Kathmandu was awesome and learning more about how people recreate in the outdoors, how to sustainably source products and also learning about gear more for my own purposes was awesome!

And then one day @davidghamilton1 tweeted that he needed a volunteer for a Tasmanian Devil project...who has always wanted to go to Tasmania?! MEEEEE. So off I went for an adventure in Tas! #BlackMammalogists #blackmamfam

At some point during this adventure down under...my now supervisor had posted my position on Twitter and I applied at the last minute thinking I wouldn't get it!! But for some reason he chose me and I applied for my visa and did all the things and waited!!

My visa got approved! So 1.5 months after I returned from Tasmania I was off to Canada...this time to Ontario, I had never been to London Ontario and knew very little about it but here I am!!

And now I am 1 year into my MSc and feeling somewhat behind because of COVID but I am hopeful I will succeed here too! Only time (and R code) will tell #blackmammalogists