Recently, we were so pleased to welcome our alumna, Anna Jemmett, back to DICE as a visitor, after the completion of her PhD in 2023. We sat down with Anna to talk about her research and what she has been up to since graduating.
Hi Anna, thanks for being here. I know you’ve just returned from Mongolia, how was your trip?
I have! I work as the Ecologist for the Wild Camel Protection Foundation (WCPF) and we’ve just translocated 7 individual wild camels to a new breeding centre in Mongolia. Actually, the research I did as a PhD student at DICE informed which animals we moved, since we needed to ensure we translocated only unrelated animals, without impacting the established herd. The genetics work I did was very useful for this.
Can you start by telling us a bit about your time as a student?
I started my PhD at DICE in January 2019 and worked on the wild camel, the rarest species of camel. I came to DICE knowing this is what I wanted to research and really my PhD didn’t change too much from my original idea! Many people, especially in the West, believe there are only two species of camel. You’ll still see signs in zoos that claim this. But my research detailed the third camel, the Wild Camel (Camelus ferus). This camel is a truly wild species, only present in Mongolia and China, and it’s critically endangered. My research focused on the Mongolian population, both in the wild and captivity. The entire wild population lives in one national park, the Great Gobi. It’s a Special Protected Area (GGASPA), which is about 45,000sq/km in size, and part of my PhD aimed to estimate the size of this population. To do this we used a novel method of distance sampling, using camera traps in timelapse mode. These camera traps took a picture every twenty minutes in daylight hours, for two-and-a-half years! Further, I looked to determine the genetic health of the wild camel in Mongolia, looking at diversity and hybridisation in the wild population, and comparing that to the captive population. I had a great time at DICE as a student, I really loved it. The people that are there made it for me, everyone you speak to is doing amazing work all over the world. It felt very exciting to be part of that. I’m very happy that I’m able to stay on as a Visitor.
What have you been working on since graduation?
Alongside my work with the WCPF, I also work for the RSPB as a Conservation Officer In this role, I am part of a team working to protect fragile peatlands, uplands and associated habitats and species in the North Highlands. This includes working with developers to improve the outcomes of built development and seeking opportunities to restore and enhance the habitats and species for which the North Highlands are world renowned. With DICE, I’m building on the microsatellite work I did for my PhD, expanding out to full genome sequencing to further understand the threats facing the critically endangered wild camel, including mutation load and introgression.