To celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month the Museum is sharing the stories of 27 inspirational women, alongside the animals they work with the most.

Dr Katie Sainsbury

Department of Zoology

“For my PhD, I researched ecological and social aspects of the changing status of polecats in Great Britain. Since almost being eradicated from Britain in the nineteenth century, polecats have been recolonising their former range, largely without human intervention.

My work investigated threats to polecat recovery, including their exposure to rodent poisons from the rodents they eat. I studied stomach contents collected from roadkill carcasses to assess how polecat diet may have changed since the 1960s. Working with gamekeepers, I investigated how increasing polecat numbers may affect livelihoods, and how game management practices may impact on polecats.”

You can hear Katie Sainsbury talk about her research on our YouTube channel in Celebrating Women in Science and Conservation. Skip to 1 hour 22 minutes 23 sec for Katie’s talk.

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