I joined WildCRU in 2002 as project officer for a fenced reintroduction of beavers in Kent. This was followed by my involvement in a variety of projects including population monitoring of small mammals (rodents and shrews), the impacts of farming practices on bats and the economic impacts of a beaver reintroduction in Britain. From 2005-2010, I researched my DPhil thesis on the Eurasian beaver. The research was a collaboration between WildCRU and Frank Rosell at Telemark University College in Norway and my thesis title was “Demography and life history of the Eurasian beaver Castor fiber”. While working on my thesis, I also wrote the protocols for monitoring beaver and other riparian mammals during the Scottish Beaver Trial.

On completion of my thesis I worked as an ecologist for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland monitoring the Scottish wildcat in the Cairngorms National Park as well as advising on both the Scottish Beaver Trial and a project examining farmer-raptor conflicts in the Falkland Islands. I then undertook (as a private contractor) the first survey of beaver activity in the River Tay catchment in Scotland, before returning to WildCRU to assist in the monitoring of Scottish wildcat across the Scottish Highlands.

Currently, I run a project investigating the behaviour, habitat use and interactions between Scottish wildcat, domestic cat and their hybrids, using camera-trapping and GPS.