Lorna Drake

Conservationist 🌱| Avid climber and explorer 🏞 | PhD in molecular ecology (specifically Dr of otters) 🐾 | she/her

[Jordan Cuff 🕸️🧬🕷️ @JordanCuff]

Great to see our paper on spider prey choice and biocontrol in an issue of #EnvironmentalDNA, and better still to see one of my wolf spider pictures on the cover! 🕷️📸📘

Check it out if you like spiders, metabarcoding, prey choice or thrips being eaten:
https://t.co/e6CcMrnmJU

[Max Tercel @MaximumInsect]

Wahooo! After a very odd and challenging year, I'm tremendously happy to see this in Early View! These adorable and *highly curious* skinks consumed introduced taxa very frequently, but there's more to the story...

https://t.co/yWLvJ1evr9

[Lorna Drake @Mini_Drakey]

Thank you to everyone who helped make this work happen: @Otter_Project for supplying the otter samples 🦦💩, @JordanCuff for spider diet data/helping bring the paper together 🕷, and all the researchers @MolEcolCU for their support/advice 🥰

[Lorna Drake @Mini_Drakey]

I’ve finally got my first lead author paper published 🥳 In this we investigated the impact different data clean-up methods have on dietary #metabarcoding datasets 🧬👩‍🔬

If you want to find out more the paper is now #OpenAccess in Early View @MethodsEcolEvol!

[Jordan Cuff 🕸️🧬🕷️ @JordanCuff]

Massive congratulations to @Mini_Drakey for pushing forward this assessment of data clean-up methods for dietary metabarcoding datasets, now #OpenAccess in Early View @MethodsEcolEvol! 🥳🎉🧬💩

https://t.co/o0j3Bfn64A

[Jordan Cuff 🕸️🧬🕷️ @JordanCuff]

Woohoo! Our new paper on the importance of rot-hole heterogeneity for invertebrate diversity is out now #OpenAccess in @EntsocAmerica Journal of Insect Science! 🪲🕷️🐛🌳

A pleasure as always working with @Fred_Windsor @ECGilmartin @FungusProf @THJ1961!

https://t.co/Ye8IKLrWxw

[Lorna Drake @Mini_Drakey]

@_paddy91 @MikeBruford @grainne_mccabe @serju18 @dfer_phd @YahayaSama Congratulations! 🥳🥂🍾

[Lorna Drake @Mini_Drakey]

@LisbethHordley @Tom_H_Oliver @ja_tobias @OwenPetchey Congratulations! 🥳 Enjoy the freedom that comes with handing and make sure you get some well deserved rest 😊

[Jordan Cuff 🕸️🧬🕷️ @JordanCuff]

Here’s that diagram I said I would make four years ago @Alex_Cubs @Mini_Drakey

[Lorna Drake @Mini_Drakey]

@watsonse1 @NYCuratrix @JoLcoinfection Wow that's incredible Sophie! Congratulations 🥳

[Lorna Drake @Mini_Drakey]

@JordanCuff @RobThomas14 Think that's all I have left 🤔 so almost the same for you too! fingers crossed it goes ahead and we can all actually celebrate together 🥳

[Lorna Drake @Mini_Drakey]

@rebekahbutler @hku_science @RHULScience @LabImeco Congratulations! 🥳 hope you are now taking a well earned rest 😉

[Lorna Drake @Mini_Drakey]

@watsonse1 Amazing! Massive congrats Soph! 🥳🥳🥳 hope you are having a good chill and taking it all in 🥰 can’t believe that’s another of our year group done 🙊

[Lorna Drake @Mini_Drakey]

@JordanCuff @MolEcolCU @HebrewU @OrozcoterWengel @IanVaughan21 @Rothamsted_RIS @Rothamsted @CUBiosciences Congratulations! 🥳

[Lorna Drake @Mini_Drakey]

Polecats underwent a massive population decline and range contraction in the early 1900's but now have recolonised a lot of England and Wales! So good to see the such positive results following years of monitoring! #MustelidMonday

[Vincent Wildlife @vincentwildlife]

How it started ➡️ How it's going

Polecats are making a remarkable comeback, having almost become extinct in the early c20th. They have now re-colonised Wales and much of England!

VWT has monitored the polecat’s recovery through national distribution surveys since the 1990s.

[Lorna Drake @Mini_Drakey]

Its easier to spot signs of otters than actually see them. One sign of otters is their spraint (aka poo). Some people say Eurasian otter spraint smells like jasmine tea, so if you find some poo and want to tell if it came from an otter, give it a sniff 😉 #MustelidMonday

[Jordan Cuff 🕸️🧬🕷️ @JordanCuff]

Wasn’t expecting my pandemic-affected wedding to appear on national news, but here we are! 👰 🤵 🦠 Thank you @Channel4News for the additional videography! 🎥

[Lorna Drake @Mini_Drakey]

Yay! So exciting to see all @JordanCuff’s hard work on these primers finally come together and be shown off to the world 😁🕷🧬

[Jordan Cuff 🕸️🧬🕷️ @JordanCuff]

The first paper directly from my @SWBio_DTP PhD is #OpenAccess online @Ecol_Ent! 🥳

New PCR primers for spider dietary analysis via metabarcoding and a field-based analysis of money spider prey choice. 🧬🍽️🕷️

https://t.co/HSDBJQbXt3

[Lorna Drake @Mini_Drakey]

@Otter_Project Thank you 🥰🦦

[Lorna Drake @Mini_Drakey]

@ColinLewis41 Thank you!

[Lorna Drake @Mini_Drakey]

4 years later and I can officially call myself a doctor! 🥳 Doing a PhD has been one of the most stressful projects I've undertaken, but it's also been a great experience! Now to relax a bit before the next stage #phdlife