![]() As you may know, I have just returned from a 12 day field trip in Mallorca with uni. I had an absolutely brilliant time and got to see all the beauty of the island. We stayed in Palma which is the capital but travelled a lot around the North/North-West of the island and saw loads of endemic species (only present in this geographical area). I just wanted to give you a summary of what I got up to and then I will definitely do some more posts about some of my favourite species I saw there! We had 4 main field trip days and 5 days of project work (including a presentation on the final day), a much needed day off and 2 travel days. Oakwood, Botanical Garden and Gorg blau This was a super fun day but we were out for 12 hours and did a lot of scrambling so I was so glad for a big buffet dinner when we got back! We first visited an oakwood in Bunyola where we studied the species present and how the level of disturbance has changed over time. Also, we saw the climbing variant of Smilax aspera here. We then travelled to Sóller Botanical gardens to look at some more endemic species, had a taste of some carob pods and looked at the skeleton of Myotragus in the museum: an extinct cave goat that was an endemic on the island. On to the reservoir of Gorg blau and then down the most incredible windy road in Sa Calobra to the beach where the water source of the reservoir used to run to. Formentor Peninsula This is the most Northerly point in Mallorca and had incredible views, and a lot of goats! First we looked at a few 'hedgehog' plants which have adapted to all the goats by reducing their leaves and/or producing prickles to prevent grazing. The Balearic endemic subspecies of Smilax aspera is present here and it is incredible how different it looks from the climbing variety! We walked down the path from the lighthouse to look at some more species up the side of the cliff. This 'walk' (I was pretty much crawling) up the side was good fun but hard work - especially when you couldn't hold onto the plants as they were all hedgehog plants! We saw the Mallorcan peony at the top which was so pretty and of major conservation status there as it is now limited to the north-western and north-eastern areas. Boquer Valley Here we studied dioecy (separation of sexes on individual plants) in Pistacia lentiscus which showed a female bias and then the species-area relationship by turning over rocks and looking at the species present. The prediction is that the larger the rock, the greater variety of species present. We found geckos, spiders, a scorpion endemic to the Balearics and loads of other interesting creatures! It also meant we got to walk down to the bottom of the valley and spend some time at a stunning beach!! Albufera Nature Reserve and Hermann's Tortoises The morning was spent birdwatching at Albufera nature reserve so that we could try to spot the three birds of high conservation status (red-knobbed coot, red crested pochard and purple swamphen). We spotted (with the help of some keen twitchers) the red crested pochard as well as an osprey, cormorants, a European pond terrapin and loads more beautiful birds! It's definitely worth a visit. We also visited a nature reserve for the western Mediterranean Hermann's Tortoise to complete a mark release recapture experiment which the uni do every year on the trip. This is normally completed by marking the individuals collected but as these tortoises have a unique stomach pattern, we used this to distinguish them. From this, we can estimate the population. We determined this as approximately 214 individuals. I also got a tortoise named after me as nobody had found that one before! Project work For our project, my group studied cyanogenesis (production of cyanide toxin upon tissue damage) in 3 legumes and the effect of this on grazing by snails. I'm currently writing a report on this study but we found some interesting results and it was good fun completing it - even if we did have to grind up 90 samples of plants! So finally here's some of my favourite photos from the trip and I look forward to showing you more! ©
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