From delving in dung to fronting the Sky ‘Knowledge' advertising campaign

Published in the Jesus College Alumni Magazine, late summer 2009

Rather than ask ‘why would you be interested in insects?' I feel it is far more relevant to ask ‘Why anyone would not be fascinated by insects?' We share the planet with over a million known species of them, with perhaps another 5 million awaiting discovery. Without midges that pollinate the cacao tree we would not have chocolate and without dung beetles burying dung, the surface of our planet would be covered in faeces! However, most people leap at a scurrying black beetle or swat a pestilent midge without a second thought for the importance of these little creatures in making our world go round.

Insects are the most numerous animals on the planet. Invertebrates make up 97% of living animals. If one specimen of all the world's plants and animals were lined up in a row, every fifth would be a beetle and the weight of ants on this planet is greater than the weight of humans! The list is endless!

I first became interested in insects when I decided to make a ladybird house on the windowsill of my primary school and dropped the stone construction on my foot breaking my toe. Not put off I would collect, examine, draw and release anything creeping or flying around the family farm with the exception of those with eight legs. As a budding entomologist, I could still not quite cope with spiders!

My interest in insects was furthered as an undergraduate at Oxford in 2002 with a tour of the University Museum's Hope Entomological Collections. Darren Mann and Dr George McGavin's infectious enthusiasm immediately rubbed off and before long I was a regular volunteer at the collections. My undergraduate project under Darren Mann looked at whether organic farming benefited insects. It was at this point that I realised that insects are not only fascinating in their own right, but they are also superb indicators of the health of the environment. I could therefore combine my three passions: insects, agriculture and the environment.

After graduating in 2005, I was awarded the University's Varley Gradwell Travelling Fellowship in Insect Ecology and embarked on a three month research trip to Zambia. I designed a project to look at the impact of farming intensification on the country's dung beetles. This is where my fascination with the dung beetle began!

A 6 month stint in South- and Central America during 2007 involved working on dung beetle projects in Bolivia and Honduras, recording insect life in the Ecuadorian Amazon, the Galapagos and the Peruvian cloud forests, and working for the conservation company Operation Wallacea as an entomologist.

Back in Pembrokeshire, I set up a small Entomological Consultancy company so that I could work directly with farmers encouraging the dung beetle and other beneficial insects onto their land in order to reduce the reliance on chemical sprays and fertilisers. Ground beetles will help control slugs whilst the dock beetle will munch on and kill the persistent dock plant. Dung beetles will bury dung, putting important nutrients back into the soil. Put simply, these insects are the farmers' best friends.

My first brush with television came in 2008 when I was approached by the BBC, who asked me to contribute to their Natural History website as an entomologist. Following on from this, I was asked to appear in the BBC Wales series ‘Not in My Nature', a documentary following a group of nature-‘haters' on a number of tasks in order to get them to see what they were missing. The group came to film with me, and I even had them delving through cow dung in search of dung beetles I'm not sure if they all left as insect-fanatics, but they did promise never to squash an innocent beetle again, so in my eyes that was a success! The programme led onto interviews on BBC Radio Wales' morning show and on BBC Radio Wales' Farming programme with regard to the benefits of insects to farmers.

In 2008, I decided it was time to head back to Oxford to pursue my research in the form of a PhD under Dr Owen Lewis with the Ecology Research Group funded by the Professor Sir Richard Southwood Scholarship in Insect Ecology. During my consultancy work I had become aware of the negative impact of treatments that we give livestock to control internal helminth parasites on the environment. These ‘anthelmintics' given either orally or by injection pass into the faeces of the treated animal where they exert a toxic effect on dung beetles and other invertebrates that live in the dung. When there are no dung beetles, dung is not removed from the pasture causing large areas to be covered in dung. A number of alternative feed supplements are also marketed for helminth parasite control, but their impact on the dung fauna and rates of dung removal are as yet unknown. The PhD focuses on a number of these supplements that are widely used by farmers, and assesses the potential ecotoxity of these to a variety of invertebrates that may come into contact with the dung from treated animals.

Earlier in 2009 I received an email mentioning that Sky were wanting to film with scientists in Oxford. A swift telephone call to Sky ensued, and I was called for a screen test later that day. It can't have gone too badly, as it was decided that I would front the Sky Knowledge advert that was to be shot over two days in the Natural History Museum. The television and press adverts came out in April 2009 and are now running for a second showing. I am currently working with another production company putting together ideas for various insect documentaries, which if commissioned, I will present.

In the mean time there is a season's worth of field data to plough through, followed by laboratory ecotoxicity trials and a trip to Zambia in January to assess the possibility of starting up a dung beetle project and entomological collections...there's nothing like keeping busy!

Sarah Beynon is a graduate resident of Jesus College and is reading for a PhD looking at the impact of cattle anthelmintics and feed supplements on the environment. She holds the Professor Sir Richard Southwood Scholarship in Insect Ecology, a linked scholarship between the Department of Zoology and Jesus College. Sarah appeared as an entomologist in BBC Wales' Not In My Nature in 2008 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/nature/mediaexplorer/?set=tv_nimn_ep01&type=video&id=tv_preview_bugs) and the Sky Knowledge advertising campaign (http://www.visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=76489) in 2009. She continues to pursue a career as an entomological consultant and wildlife TV presenter.