Introducing: Wiggy Felstead, Master student

I am currently living in the Netherlands but was born and raised in the UK. I have a bachelor’s degree in biomedical science from the University of Leeds but decided to change paths and am currently undertaking a master’s degree in sustainable development at Utrecht University. 

After working as a research assistant for Ine Dorresteijn (WildlifeNL core team) as part of the Bright Minds Assistantship program, I decided to continue my work as my thesis topic. During my assistantship, I developed a paper prototype for a mobile app to aid research into human-wildlife interactions. The app aims to be a tool for citizen scientists to collect data on the types of interactions they are having in the two WildlifeNL living labs, part of work package 6.

My thesis research

Starting from the paper prototype, I have moved the app to the next phase by developing a usable version on the ESRI platform, Survey123, for a pilot study in the living labs. Although the end goal is to have a gamified version of the app to encourage users to participate and improve their experience, the current app is set out like a survey and asks for feedback to improve the next app version. 

Importantly, the app collects data on human emotions and behaviors, as well as their perception of the animals’ emotions and behaviors during a human-wildlife interaction. Data concerning the time, place and species of animal is also collected, alongside details of the interaction. I hope my findings will provide insight into positive, neutral, and negative human-wildlife interactions, and that links between emotions, behaviors, and perceptions can be identified, if they indeed exist. Ultimately, I envision that tools to foster coexistence between humans and wildlife can be developed from a better understanding of these interactions. 

Fieldwork

I am currently doing my fieldwork in Kempen-Broek, a beautiful park on the border of the Netherlands and Belgium. I am staying in a research fieldhouse on the edge of the Laurabossen forest, with Tauros cattle roaming around every evening, their calves playing in the grass. It is magical. 

My daily work currently consists of visiting various areas within the park and recruiting participants to share their experiences of interacting with wildlife via the app. The weather definitely influences my success and I have been lucky with some beautiful sunny days, as well as some rather wet ones. My main challenge is finding participants who have recently interacted with wildlife, as most places either have a lot of humans or a lot of wildlife, but rarely both. Being in the natural areas and meeting so many people is a fulfilling part of this work, I have been shown a lot of photos by people wanting to share their experiences with me, for example, one participant showed me a photo of a wild pig cuddling a Tauros cow. After three weeks in Kempen-Broek, I will continue my fieldwork in Zuid-Kennermerland for a further three weeks.

I am thrilled to be able to use my thesis to contribute to the important work WildlifeNL has set out to achieve. The project is very ambitious and exciting, bringing together so many different stakeholders and I am honored to be a part of it. I can’t wait to see what WildlifeNL will achieve.

In the next blog Phd Bas Michielsen will introduce himself and tell about his contribution at the WildlifeNL.