Field Trip Locations

The Indonesia marine research centre is based on the stunning Hoga Island in the famous Wakatobi Marine National Park, the most published site in the Coral Triangle. Accommodation is small traditional wooden huts with a bathroom based on two people sharing, lecture facilities and dining hall are within the main lodge.

Practicals include:

• PADI Open water course
• Biodiversity and environmental assessment of coral reefs
• Behavioural ecology of reef fish
• Transect tape to stereo videography: methods of coral reef assessment
• 3D mapping software to model reefs
• Seagrass and mangrove studies
• Artisanal fishery survey methods
• Tropical marine resource management

Examples of available lectures:

• The distribution of coral reefs in space and time
• The biodiversity of coral reefs and associated systems
• Methods used to assess coral reef biodiversity and productivity
• Feeding the millions: tropical marine resources
• The management and conservation of tropical marine resources

Running from a research ship in the remote Amazonian Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve. Basic dorm style accommodation, lecture facilities and dining room all within the research ship.

Practicals carried out by both foot and small boats include:

• Quantifying pink and grey river dolphin populations from boat based transects
• Fish surveys using gill nets
• Caiman surveys using spotlighting
• Macaw point counts
• Wading bird transect surveys
• Distance sampling for primate surveys
• Camera trapping for large mammals
• Fishing bat surveys
• Amphibian surveys of floating vegetation mats
• Community-based activities with local indigenous villages

Examples of available lectures:

• General ecology of flooded Amazonian forests
• Biodiversity gradients in Amazonia: evolutionary and ecological theories
• Feeding ecology and trophic structure in Amazonian wildlife assemblages
• Resource use and sustainability in community-based reserves
• Protected areas and indigenous people in Amazonia
• The effects of climate change on Amazonian wildlife and local people: impacts, adaptations and mitigation

This course can be run at Big 5 reserves in either the Highveld, Lowveld and Fynbos reserves if a one week course or a mixture of two of these sites if 10 days or longer.

Practicals include:

• Distance based surveys of large game species to quantify population levels
• Veld assessment techniques
• Bird point counts surveys
• Camera trapping for mammals
• Lion behaviour using the standardised methods
• Developing elephant or rhino ID kits to classify their behaviours
• Assessing browsing pressure on bushes and trees using the Walker scale
• Quantifying the carrying capacity of large herbivores within a reserve

Examples of available lectures:

• Population control of herbivores and predators
• Grassland management using fire, fertilizers and grazing pressure
• Sustainable wildlife use and CITES
• Fencing conservation areas and the implications for management
• The future of South African wildlife conservation and the hunting industry
• Research conservation techniques used in wildlife management

Terrestrial elements of this course is run in the jungle of the Yucatan Peninsula. If dive training is required for the second week then the best option is to go to our Akumal site where accommodation is in shared rooms a short way from the beach. If a more extensive marine science training course is required, the Honduras marine site of Tela is ideal, linked from Mexico via a flight from Belize City. Courses can be run as a forest only course or marine only courses if run for one week, or as a mix of the two options if run as a course for 10 days or longer.

Practicals include:

• Camera trapping to estimating jaguar and puma populations
• Scan and focal sampling techniques for studying primate behaviour
• Bird point count surveys
• Herpetofauna standard search and pitfall trap surveys
• Mist net surveys for bats
• Assessing reef health using videography techniques
• Comparison of different methodologies used to assess benthic community composition
• 3D mapping software to model reefs
• Assessment of fish populations using both visual censuses (UVC) and modern stereo video surveys (SVS)
• Lab-based behaviour and physiology practicals

Examples of available lectures:

• Neotropical primate social structure and behaviour
• Bird, herpetofauna and mammal communities of Mexico
• Conservation of Caribbean coral reefs
• Modern technology and techniques for quantifying reef
• Fish communities and coral reefs
• Local and global threats to Caribbean coral reefs