Potential research project

[jovamabob]

Im doing my BSc Animal Behaviour and Welfare Degree and since im in my final year (at last!!!) i have to do a dissertation (research project). I'd love to do some research into reptiles, particularly BD's or tortoises, but i am very very stuck for a topic! I figured who best to brainstorm with than a group of reptile enthusiasts! Is there anything you've always wanted to do an experiment into or a theory you've always wanted to test out?

The only restrictions i have are that it has to be a study that directly relates to animal behaviour or their welfare. I can't do anything invasive such as taking blood samples and don't have any access to a laboratory beyond basics - ie. i can't do any parasite checking, looking into hormone levels etc. I also have a very short time frame of less than 2 months to actually physically carry the study out so long-term studies are also out. I live in the UK so observing reptiles in the natural habitat are pretty difficult too lol!

Thanks in advance

 

[snazzyglasses]

Hooray for being almost done!!
I'm thinking the easiest way to gather extra data (if needed) would be a survey of reptile owners, or maybe just specifically beardies. I'm betting if you put one together the people on this site wouldn't mind filling it out (I wouldn't mind anyway!)

As for a topic, I'd have to get back to you on that one

 

[jducky18]

If you do actually decide to do a survey, I'm a marketing major with some research experience over in the US and I would love to help you out. If you cruise around in some of the forums, a lot of people discuss the way pet stores give out potentially dangerous information to owners who would not otherwise know the difference. This gets a lot of people riled up and I'm sure you could get a lot of opinions and even personal experiences, you could actually go to a pet store and observe the health/feeding practices within the store as well as what information they give you and cross check that with the reputable sources listed on this site. There is definitely a lot you could do with that topic and you could gather tons of information in a short amount of time, and it has everything to do with animal health and welfare.

Good luck!

 

[batman]

I agree with jducky, that is definately a relevant topic and you could get personal accounts from the majority of members on here.
I reckon you'd get a good response if you asked for a survey to be filled out on this site, wether it be about the Care in pet stores or any other related topic.
I would be happy to help you out

 

[jovamabob]

That is an excellent idea and something i'm definitely interested in Unfortunately i had a similar idea and my tutor said it wasn't suitable. I have to to a physical study on an animal that is directly in front of me, collecting my own data. Im not allowed to use data other people have collected for me because the idea of the project is to prove i'm able to create, carry out and collect my own data. I'm allowed to do a survey in itself but he said they are notoriously hard to get right and it makes up such a large chunk of my grade i don't wanna risk getting it wrong I have to think of something more 'experiment-y' lol
I'm pretty sure my tutors sole job is to just shoot down any ideas i ever possibly have. I suggested a questionnaire on if a persons economic status has an impact on welfare views and he asked me how i was going to make sure people don't lie - a pretty impossible task lol!

I did think about preference testing of colours, food or something. Or some kind of recognition experiment - theres an experiment with redfoot tortoises where they introduced shapes and rewarded them with food whenever they touched the right shape - ie red triangle meant food reward, but red square did not. They they did 'blue square and red square, hollow square, etc. and they were really good at making associations between what shapes they had previously learnt meant food. That'd be pretty cool to replicate but would take a while

 

[batman]

That sounds like a cool experiment but I'd suggest it was more of a long term thing, I don't think with 2 months you'd get much of a response. That's something that would have to be learnt by the animal in question and for them to make any real recognition I'd guess it'd take a long time.
How about doing something simple like 'wether the colour of salad fed to a bearded dragon affects his/her interest in said salad'?
You could start by weighing some plain old green salad and noting how much had been eat after each day then compare that to the same test but putting red peppers and such in?
Just an idea, I'm probably way off the mark :lol:

 

[jovamabob]

How about doing something simple like 'wether the colour of salad fed to a bearded dragon affects his/her interest in said salad'?
You could start by weighing some plain old green salad and noting how much had been eat after each day then compare that to the same test but putting red peppers and such in?
Just an idea, I'm probably way off the mark :lol:

That is an ace idea! I noticed with my tort she always went for white things - she'd chase down paper and ignore tasty food! My beardie prefers heavily dusted crickets that are whiter vs. the black ones. i'd probably have to refine the idea a little more, theres a few variables in there that could influence any results - taste preferences over colour and such. I could find safe natural food dye and change the colour of one food though

 

[batman]

My beardie is exactly the same with the crickets, + if I put some colour in his salad he always atleast has a mooch about.
Yeah that sounds perfect, I'm sure it'll be easy to find a food colouring that'll be safe aswell, gave me an idea to get my beardie more interested in his veg!