Meg Wilson is Animal Collections Manager across all sites of Capel Manor College, a further education college specialising in land-based studies.
How would you characterise your current work?
My job as an Animal Collections Manager for Capel Manor College is more of a lifestyle and is extremely varied. I might be arranging a drill for a ring-tailed lemur recapture with staff in the early morning, preparing policies and procedures in the office for our zoo licence at another one of our sites midmorning, shearing our flock of sheep with the farmer over lunch and in marketing meetings discussing signage and educational displays in the afternoon, after popping to the vets with a parrot - no day is ever the same!
How do you feel about maths?
Like many people, maths was a daunting subject for me at school. I remember sitting in a classroom attempting to learn several ways to work out one mathematical problem which only sparked frustration and caused the majority of the class to think ‘we will never be using this in life - why do we need to learn this?’ It was a miracle that I passed my maths GCSE to allow me to do ‘A’ levels. It wasn’t until the last year of my BSc Hons degree where I found that maths was applied to something I really enjoyed doing, with a clear reason for doing it.
What is it about your work that is mathematical?
Even though it doesn’t necessarily feel like it, I use maths every single day, as do all my colleagues. There are many examples; on a day-to-day basis we use weighing scales to weigh food for animals and to weigh the animals themselves to ensure they are at a healthy weight. As I manage the animal collection, I am not fully involved with teaching the students but it’s important all staff ‘speak the same language’ for example using fractions to know what a ‘section’ of hay or straw is. Over- or under- feeding for the animals not only means a possible welfare implication but also a financial consequence. When there is wastage of food or bedding material, this might mean we must order more stock which is not accounted for, affecting the animal care budget overall.
When an animal falls ill, we have to work out the medication on site after vet approval. At the end of the year, each council (responsible for giving us our zoo licence) requires a report outlining percentages of births, deaths, departures, arrivals and other necessary information which has to be collated. When growing a zoo and introducing a new animal, there are strict space requirements for individual species. I have to provide technical drawings including measurements to send to the departing zoo to ensure we meet their and legal requirements to house these animals in captivity. From a business side, it’s important for me to look at the number of customers we might have during the year, ensuring we are educating the public to the best of our ability.