Some senior students write lengthy theses, some create final art projects and yet others conduct extensive final research. Whitney Loftis, senior cell and molecular biology major, is in the midst of her own unique senior research in order to complete her degree.
All senior biology majors at Union are required to conduct an extended period of research to graduate. They are presented with opportunities to work together with a professor on the professor’s current research.
“It’s unique,” Loftis said. “I don’t think most colleges have experience with undergrad research in science.”
Loftis, who is most interested in animals, chose to team up with James Huggins, professor of biology. Huggins’ research focuses on urbanization’s effects on deforestation, particularly pertaining to eastern screech owls. This research is different from most senior students’ research because it is not conducted in a lab.
“I kind of felt like I had already seen [lab research] so I wanted to branch out and see what field research was,” Loftis said.
According to Loftis, there is a decrease in natural tree cavities for eastern screech owls to live in. The idea of nest boxes has been proposed as a way to help these owls.
Huggins has 17 nest boxes on his property, previously studied by Brooklin Byrd, class of 2014. Byrd made modifications to the entrance holes of the nest boxes during her study. Half the entrances are squares and the other half are smaller triangles. The main research is taking note of whether the owls show preference to a certain entrance shape.
Loftis has continued where Byrd left off by examining the nest boxes regularly. She goes to visit the boxes weekly and takes with her a camera on the end of a long pole. She is able to hold the camera up into the boxes to see what may be in them that day.
“I like it because you never know what you’re going to see; it’s different every week,” Loftis said. “It’s a good excuse to just get out, get away from union for a couple hours, hike through the woods.”
While she sees two owls frequently, she also occasionally finds squirrels in the nest boxes. One time in particular stands out to Loftis.
“Usually [the squirrels] just run up the tree or whatever but this squirrel actually like jumped out at me and literally I think I could’ve like touched it,” Loftis said. “It almost landed on my head.”
Loftis said she has learned a lot and gained respect for those who choose to go into research.
“I think overall the research has been really positive. I feel like I’ve gained a much better idea of what scientific research looks like,” said Loftis.
Loftis will finish up her field study in just a couple of weeks. The remaining weeks of the semester will be dedicated to writing her final research paper. Loftis says she will graduate this May and plans to follow her love of animals to Lincoln Memorial University for veterinarian school.
