If you can stay for a period of 7 weeks you will have enough time to visit the marine site following 6 weeks of data collection for a dissertation project at the terrestrial site. This can be for research experience or used for your final dissertation project as part of your undergraduate studies. With this course after your first 6 weeks in the forest, you would then be able to move to the marine site to gain your PADI open water dive training certification, or if already qualified, take part in the Caribbean reef ecology course.

Those booking this option, please email expeditions@opwall.com to let them know whether you would like to learn to dive, snorkel or are already qualified.

Bat abundance in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve is very high due to the huge expanse of primary forest and presence of multiple caves that act as roost sites. Moreover, some of the rarer carnivorous bats such as the great false vampire bat are flourishing in Calakmul due to abundant food supply and Mayan ruins which they use as roost sites. Calakmul, therefore provides an excellent site for bat research projects as the large numbers of captures provide a substantial dataset and the opportunity to learn bat handling techniques. Bat diversity is unlikely to be uniform throughout the reserve due to changes in the habitat resulting from vicinity to ruins sites (Mayan ruins contain unusually high densities of large fruiting trees as a result of ancient Mayan agroforestry) and distance from temporary lakes knows as aguadas that are the only sources of water in the reserve. Students will investigate bat abundance and diversity using mist net surveys in conjunction with bat detectors that record bat vocalizations. These combined methods will provide data on the carnivorous, frugivorous and nectivorous bats that are frequently caught in the nets and the insectivorous bats that have such fine-tuned echolocation that they can detect mist nets and are therefore virtually impossible to capture. These data will be collected across a range of transects in the reserve that encompass different habitat characteristics. Each transect contains a number of 20m x 20m habitat survey plots that provide detailed information of the forest characteristics in the area. In each of these plots, tree species will be identified, tree DBH, understorey vegetation, canopy openness, and the number of saplings will be measured. Bat data from each transect can then be related to mean habitat characteristics for the transect and comparisons between bat diversity and habitat variables may be investigated.

Extended Dissertation Summary

If you would like to do a dissertation or thesis with us but your university hasn’t started dissertation planning or the project selection process, that’s no problem. You can cancel your expedition with zero cancellation charges up until the 15th of April of if you provide documentation from your university saying that they won’t support completing a dissertation project with us.