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Herp Workers for Operation Wallacea: |
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Ewan Member Joined: 14 Jul 2003 No. of posts: 21  View other posts by Ewan |
Posted: 02 Mar 2004 This arrived in the one of the listservs I'm on and may be of interest to some in the RAUK forum. I personally have no connection with, nor prior knowledge of, the organisation but the web site checks out. Ewan From: Linda A Weir To: PARC@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 8:07 AM Subject: Operation Wallacea - Honduras, Indonesia I was asked to post the following announcement to the PARC listserve. Please contact Dr. Tim Coles if you are interested in assisting. Operation Wallacea is looking for herpetologists to help with surveys this coming summer in Honduras or in Indonesia. Operation Wallacea (see www.opwall.com) is an organisation funded by paying volunteers, which establishes extensive monitoring programmes in remote areas for assessing changes in factors such as socio- economics, forest structure, biodiversity (using indicator groups such as herpetofauna) and population levels of key species. In Indonesia the programme has been running for 8 years and has now attracted substantial funding from GEF. In Honduras we are in the process of establishing a similar programme and the results from the surveys in 2004 are being used as a baseline against which future changes can be assessed. In Honduras we are operating four camps within the Merendon Mountains along the northern border with Guatemala. One camp is in a lowland forest valley, one at 1200m in the buffer zone of the Cusuco National Park and two at 1700m in the core zone of the National Park. We are looking for a herpetologist to man each of the camps for a 10 week period starting 26 June. We are intending to have an extensive network of pitlines established at each of the sites covering areas of undisturbed forest through to highly disturbed and open areas. In addition there will be a network of cover boards at each of the sites and the herpetologists will need to complete opportunistic transect searches each day. These posts are not funded but on site costs will be covered. This is however, an excellent opportunity for graduates or postgraduates with an interest in herpetology and previous experience of handling poisonous snakes to gain experience of Central America fieldwork. There is one further herpetology post that we are looking to fill in Honduras. This is to complete a population study of the pink subspecies of Boa Constrictor which lives only on the two islands of the Cayos Cochinos. This sub species is protected under Honduran legislation but there appears to be a flourishing illicit trade in the sale of these animals to collectors. The objective of this project which runs from the same dates would be to obtain an estimate of the population size on both islands. The snakes are fairly easy to capture and these would then be pit tagged and released. Given the relatively small size of the islands it is possible to search a fairly large part of them for the snakes, which should give fairly precise population estimates. In addition this study would also complete an assessment of the other herpetofauna species on the island from pit lines and opportunistic searching. In addition to these posts though we are looking for a herpetologist with a strong publication record to help set up the surveys in the field and then to utilise the information collected for one or more publications. In this case the costs of flights as well as the on site costs will be covered. If the herpetofauna project runs well this season then we might be interested in running the project in 2005 by funding a PhD student as we have done for many of the Indonesian marine projects. In Indonesia we are designing the survey work as a precursor to a full GEF monitoring programme. I have attached the GEF project description and the appendix which describes how the monitoring programme is used to assess performance against various socio-economic, forest structure, biodiversity and population levels of key species criteria. We will be working at 9 sampling nodes (3 in undisturbed forest, 3 in moderately disturbed forest and 3 in disturbed forest). The nodes will be spread right across the Lambusango Forest Management Area in central Buton Island. The science teams will visit each of the nodes for a week on a rolling programme starting 17 July. The herpetofauna work which will be co- ordinated through the Arthur Rylah Institute in Melbourne will involve a postdoc (for preference) or a postgrad with Asia Pacific herpetology experience running pit traps and cover boards at each of the sampling nodes and completing opportunistic search transects. This project will cover the field costs and a ?ú500 travel grant. The successful applicant will need to be on site for a 10 or 12 week period starting on 25 June 2004 in Makassar. I hope these projects are of interest to some of your contacts. Dr Tim Coles Project Director Operation Wallacea Hope House Old Bolingbroke Spilsby Lincolnshire PE23 4EX Tel: 01790 763194 Fax: 01790 763825 http://www.opwall.com Ewan Shilland Contract Research Scientist Environmental Change Research Centre University College London |
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Lisa Member Joined: 19 Apr 2004 No. of posts: 23 View other posts by Lisa |
Posted: 11 May 2004 I completed my undergraduate dissertation with Op Wall in Indonesia working on riverine amphibians. The on site herpetologist Graeme Gillespie (who I assume is still co ordinating from Arthur Rylah Inst) was excellent to work for. Although I was only there as a volunteer (and spent all me savings in the process) I would highly recommend it to anyone who wishes to work with species we cannot dream of in the UK..although I love 'em all, nothing can compare to a king cobra or 5M boa for a herp thrill. Nor for that matter rediscovering a 'lost' frog species. cheers Lisa |
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evilmike Senior Member Joined: 15 May 2004 No. of posts: 85 View other posts by evilmike |
Posted: 15 May 2004 i got back from 3 weeks out with op wall begining of april in Honduras at Cusuco, wish had the money to go back amazing place with amazing wildlife. Mike Lister BSc hons Ecology & Env management |
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-LAF Senior Member Joined: 03 Apr 2003 No. of posts: 317 View other posts by -LAF |
Posted: 15 May 2004 Yeah, I worked with Graeme on OpWall on Buton in 2000. It seemed a well run project and most of the scientific staff seemed to be genuinely interested in research, something that doesn't seem to hold true for a number of similar charity expedition ventures I've heard about recently. My only criticism of OpWall is the price. For what it cost to go to Indo for a month with them I could have lived on Sulawesi for the full 6mnth duration of my visa and had enough left over not to have had to fork out for the seperate airfair (not included in price). Still, at least with OpWall there's always someone to find and ship what's left of your body back to England in case that idle mid-day wander up the Salty infested river turns bad... Anyway, not sure what Honduras is like but Sulawesi rocks. Can't recomend it highly enough, especially if your new to this type of thing, OpWall really do make it idiot proof. Lee. Lee Fairclough |
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divydovy Member Joined: 14 Sep 2004 No. of posts: 1 View other posts by divydovy |
Posted: 14 Sep 2004 Hi there all, I spent 8 months with Operation Wallacea now over 3 seasons, working with Graeme Gillespie as his assistant for much of that time. I spent all my time in Indonesia, and so couldn't comment on any of the S. American side of things, but I'm happy to correspond with anyone thinking of going to either place. Cheers, Dave Lockie |
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Rex Sumner Member Joined: 23 Jun 2004 No. of posts: 7 View other posts by Rex Sumner |
Posted: 15 Sep 2004 I was the Logistics Officer & Interpreter for Operation Drake in Sulawesi back in 1979. I believe that that this was the forerunner for Wallacea - Operation Raleigh followed on from it, then Wallacea I think. We had a fantastic time, mapping the new reserve in Kolonodale and building canopy walkways for the scientists to study the rainforest top. I remember looking for salties in the rivers at night without success but getting a bit of a shock when things started skimming the surface of the river down the torch beam to slam into the side of the canoe at high speed. Turned out to be a form of garfish, not what we had expected! All the students working on the project had a fantastic time, as did the scientists who were ecstatic at the data they collected. From what I have heard, the Operations have gone from strength to strength and this is a fantastic opportunity. Rex |
- Herp Workers for Operation Wallacea |