Future Dr. Rannveig :)Two weeks ago I suddenly decided that I wanted to do a PhD. Wednesday last week I was offered a project on the European Mink (Mustela lutreola) which is critically endangered.
I will be registered at the Uni of Iceland with Páll Hersteinsson as my supervisor but mostly I will be based at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) at the Univesity of Oxford with Dr. David MacDonald. The field work will be in in Eastern Europe, most likely in Estonia and Belarus :)
The European Mink was doing just fine until nature extremists released farmed American Minks (Mustela vison) into the wild in Europe. The bloody idiots did not realize these were two very different species and they would not live happily every after. The disastrous result is that the American mink has almost wiped out the European since it is larger and a better swimmer. The mink that escaped in Iceland and has been harassing farmers is the American mink.
I am so thrilled about this project, its exactly the kind of problem I am passionate about and I truly hope my work will do something to help the species. The minks are very aggressive so I will need some training and will do that with a group of doctorates this spring and summer in England.
Soooo... its amazing... just over 2 weeks ago a PhD was the absolutely LAST thing I wanted to do. I had had it with school and I wanted to work :) But things changed in a split second and in this incredibly short time my life has been turned upside down, again, but this time in a fantastic way :) I know it in my heart that this is the right thing for me to do. I am incredibly lucky and proud to get this project as David MacDonald is one of the leaders in the conservation field in the UK. Oxford here I come :)
