DICE Talk: ‘Using decoy turtle eggs to track poachers’

Helen Pheasey with turtles in Costa Rica

The School of Anthropology and Conservation has created a new series named DICE Talks that will take place every month and will consist of a public lecture by DICE staff, students and alumni.

This month’s DICE Talk will occur on Thursday, January 17th, and be given by Helen Pheasey, a DICE PhD student currently working on a project looking at methods of, and motives for, laundering a wildlife commodity beyond captive farms. Reflecting this research, the talk is entitled ‘Using decoy turtle eggs to track poachers.’

Helen has just spent almost two years in Costa Rica trying to understand more about sea turtle poachers and, more importantly, where they take the eggs when they leave the beach. Using 3D-printed, GPS-embedded fake turtle eggs, she attempted to track poachers and identify trade routes. The talk will tell the story of this field trail, how the inspiration came about, and sharing the highs and lows of an experiment many would deem ‘crazy’.

The talk will take place in Grimond Lecture Theatre 2 starting at 18:00 and will last for one hour.

The event is free and open to all.

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