Arcadia Ireland

We were delighted to recently see that one of the projects from a current UCD STEM Summer research student made Irish national news! Faith Kurtz from Michigan State University is involved in a project that as a whole is to tag the fallow deer fawns at Ireland’s largest Phoenix Park, in order to track and monitor their well-being.

When I caught up with Faith, she told me the following

“My focus for the project will be primarily on the repeatability of the fawns’ behavior pre-capture, during handling, and at release to study personality. 

We gently capture and assess the fawns before releasing them. While handling them, we collect various DNA samples and measure their heart rate and physical dimensions in order to study overall well-being. We also try to recapture many of the fawns throughout the season to see how they are developing and to study the repeatability of their behavior. When monitoring behavior we consider how many times they kick and/or cry. We also consider how they respond to release, noting if they flee instantly or stay lying still for a moment, or anything in between. We always wear gloves to ensure we do not transfer human scent onto the newborn fawns. We also cover their eyes to limit stress while handling them”

Linked here is an article in the Irish Times from previous years that describes the project as it has been ongoing for many years! The article also gives more insight into what Faith and the others are doing. 

The project is also featured briefly in The Atlantic 

Are we proud? Eh, yes!