Funding for Fota research
Two collaborative research projects between UCC and Fota Wildlife Park have received funding from the Irish Research Council, it was recently announced.
Both research projects are primarily focused on animal behaviour, captive animal welfare, conservation and movement ecology.
The projects are being carried out by Daniel Moloney and Dr Rebecca Newman of UCC’s School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES).
Dr Newman’s research interests are primarily focused on animal behaviour and captive animal welfare, with a particular interest in understanding the effects of environmental enrichment and human-animal relationships in zoos.
Daniel Moloney’s research over the next four years will focus on animals Fota Wildlife Park care for both in captivity and in the wild. Daniel will be looking to understand the different elements of captive animals’ lives, including how the number of visitors to the park and the noise they make may influence cheetah’s behaviour and welfare.
Daniel will also be looking to understand how cheetahs’ personalities influence their interactions with the care practices staff use. As well as behaviour, Daniel will be looking to understand the reasoning groups of animals make when moving in herds, using the large, multi-species paddock as a focus of this research.
Finally, Daniel will join the ongoing conservation project being conducted by Fota Wildlife Park to preserve and boost numbers of Natterjack toads in Ireland. The Natterjack toad is currently Ireland’s rarest amphibian species and is considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature within Ireland.
Fota Wildlife Park has been working alongside the National Parks and Wildlife Services as well as the Dingle Aquarium to collect and protect Natterjack eggs in captivity before releasing them back into the wild to boost populations. Daniel will be using radio-frequency tags and DNA analysis to establish survival rates and movements of toads released into the wild.
Professor John O'Halloran, President of UCC, welcomed the announcement which he said marks a new chapter in UCC's longstanding relationship with Fota Wildlife Park.
“With natural habitats under continuing pressure, zoology is an important area of study that can have a lasting impact on a global scale. This collaboration attests to the university's ambition that our students acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development and become active citizens who make a valuable contribution to the world around them.”
Sean McKeown, Director of Fota Wildlife Park, said: “These projects are important scientific activities to Fota Wildlife Park and ultimately contribute to the success of our breeding programmes and enable us to maintain the highest possible welfare standards. Research is one of the core values of Fota Wildlife Park and this scientific analysis provides data for the management of future endangered populations in zoos and wildlife parks but also in the wild.”
Fota Wildlife Park and UCC have had a longstanding connection since UCC acquired the Island in 1975. The late Dr Terry Murphy of Dublin Zoo and Professor Tom Rafferty of UCC devised the establishment of a wildlife park on 70 acres of land on Fota Island.
The land was provided without cost but under licence from UCC, which received unanimous support from the university’s governing body and was formally agreed to by the Zoological Society’s Council in December 1979, before opening to the public in 1983.