Did you miss? Wytham on Countryfile

Last Sunday [23/11/08] BBC One's Countryfile did a special report from Wytham Woods highlighting the work of Oxford University scientists.

The episode featured a number of different items from Wytham in which John Craven talked to Oxford scientists and their collaborators about their scientific and conservation work.

It began with some history and the work of pioneering Oxford ecologist Charles Elton (1900-1991), who started a 20-year study of the interrelated lives of Wytham's animals in the 1940s, and then picked out a number of examples of the research still going on today.

Highlights of the report included Chris Newman of Oxford's WildCRU on wood mice:

Chris showed how these photogenic creatures are captured using humane traps - the design of many traps hasn't changed since Elton's time.

Like many scientists at Wytham Chris keeps detailed records of the abundance and health of animals in the area creating a storehouse of knowledge on how the ecoystem changes over time.

Then there was Andrew Gosler of the Department of Zoology on great tits:

Andrew demonstrated how the birds are captured using nets and then carefully examined to determine how fat and healthy they are and how their lifestyle and habits may have been affected by climate change.

A final highlight was Zoology's Marian Dawkins on work with the Farm Animal Initiative:

Marian explained how a working farm can also be a scientific laboratory, for instance exploring the effect of an outdoor environment on the genes of chickens.

Of course there are so many other interesting Wytham research projects they could have covered [for instance Ben Sheldon's work on climate change and great tits] but it nevertheless gave a fascinating overview.

All images video grabs copyright BBC.

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