Reannan Honey

 

Name of your supervisor: Jonathan Webb

 

Your Honours project title: Do incubation temperatures affect learning ability in hatchling geckos?

 

The aim of my project was to determine if incubation temperature affected traits of hatchling geckos including morphology (length, weight, etc.), locomotor performance, and learning ability; as well as hatchling survival in the field.

 

I have two primary types of work days; lab days and field days. A typical lab day involves caring for the geckos (cage cleaning, providing water and feeding), as well as conducting tests such as learning ability and locomotor performance. A field day is often a very long and hard day, it involves traveling to my field sites where I capture geckos and record their unique ID, size, location, and sex. If I capture an unmarked gecko I give them a unique ID to track the survival of natural born geckos along with the lab born ones.

 

I enjoy the opportunity to get outside and not just spend all of my time in a lab or at a desk, it keeps me interested in my work. It also allows me to learn more than just my chosen topic, I also get to learn about other species I find at my field sites including frogs, snakes, spiders and other lizards.

 

Having completed my honours in 2016 and receiving first class, I have been offered a place in a Doctor of Philosophy at UTS! I hope to become an Academic Researcher at a university one day, which will allow me to teach and pass on my knowledge as well as continue to research what I am passionate about!

 

Honours is a very hard but rewarding experience, I would recommend anyone considering research to do honours to get a real feel for what research is like! Make sure to talk to lots of potential supervisors and volunteer throughout your undergraduate degree. Volunteering will allow you to get a feel for different research areas and you will get to discover what you are most interested in and passionate about.