University experts team with keen volunteers for habitat research

ECOLOGISTS from Staffordshire University are to coach volunteers in research techniques that could help protect one of Europe`s largest insects and its dramatic coastal home.

In the UK, the five-centimetre long great green bush cricket is found only in limited areas of Devon and the researchers want to find out why.

The project is being co-ordinated and funded by the international conservation charity Earthwatch, which teams enthusiastic volunteers from all over the world with scientists on environmental projects.

Dr John Dover and Dr Paul Lunt, from Staffordshire University`s School of Sciences, will teach the volunteers techniques for studying the habitat of the cricket as well as recording the movements of butterflies in the area.

Green lanes, which are sunken between two hedges or walls, criss-cross the area and the team will study whether they provide better corridors for wildlife such as butterflies than hedgerows.

Dr Dover, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ecology, said: "The great green bush cricket has a very distinctive song - apparently like a shrill computer printer - but only the males `sing`.

"It`s not an endangered species, but it does have a restricted distribution, mainly on the south coast of Devon with some on the north.

"The Devon Wildlife Trust suggested that we study the cricket as they don`t know what its habitat requirements are and consequently can`t protect or enhance habitat for the species."

The team, which is expected to include volunteers from all over the world, will be staying in a hall attached to the local real ale pub in East Prawle, the Pig`s Nose Inn.

"The important component of the project is the volunteers; they`re essential as it`s such a large project and we need a lot of people to make it work," added Dr Dover.

"They don't have to be experts, but will need lots of enthusiasm and a willingness to work hard and learn new techniques."

The work will include vegetation and micro-climate surveys, catching, marking and tracking butterflies and creating fake green lanes out of a hedgerow and a green plastic windbreak.

Four teams of up to 10 volunteers will be able to join in the project for five-day slots in July and August. The £330 fee covers food and accommodation.

For more information, see the Earthwatch website at http://www.earthwatch.org/discovery/uk.html or call 01865 318831.

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University experts team with keen volunteers for habitat research

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