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Con Sci students head to Ecuador |
With support from the Royal Geographical Society, a team of students from the School of Conservation Sciences will be travelling to the Cloud Forests of Ecuador in August to help with efforts to conserve threatened wildlife.
The main aims of the Andean Mammal Mapping Project are to compare techniques for measuring the incidence of high conservation value mammals such as big cats (particularly jaguar, puma and ocelot), spectacled bear and monkeys and to compare techniques for assessing habitat suitability for these species.
The research will be undertaken as a collaborative project between Bournemouth University and the Darwin Initiative Primenet Project. The student members of the team are studying for degrees in Environment & Conservation Biology BSc and in Environmental Protection BSc and are Michelle Brown, Anna Hoynalanmaa, Jon Jessett, Rachel Pearce, Alex Lovegrove, Roy Rainbow and Michaela Wilkinson.
The scientific advisors on the team are Dr Anita Diaz, Senior Ecology Lecturer, School of Conservation Sciences and Dr Mika Peck, Director of the Darwin Initiative Primenet Project and will be on hand to offer research expertise and local knowledge to the group during the visit.
“The students have already shown enormous commitment and are currently busy raising further funds, refining their research methods and planning logistics. This expedition to one of the world’s most remote and special habitats will provide the students with the opportunity to evaluate how wildlife conservation theory can be applied in practice and to engage in research at a crucial frontier of current knowledge,” said Dr Anita Diaz.
For more information on this project, please contact Dr Anita Diaz
02/05/07