Over-educated and Underfunded
Weird, wacky and wonderful stories and sketches from biologists in the field.
By Kenny PeavyLooking for a way to get your little ones outside enjoying the beautiful spring weather while learning about their natural surroundings? Below, Kenny and his family will help you create your very own nature journal! Age Range: 5-9 Materials: Paper, Colored Pencils, Hole Punch, String (or other device to connect your papers), Nature! Time: 10 minutes to as long as you want! Learning Outcomes: Social-Emotional Learning, Building Curiosity, Plant Identification, Pollination, How Plants Grow
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By Ariana LoehrThe landscape of Sulawesi is supposed to be as beautiful as it is remote- not that I’d know, as our global stay home notice limits me to the grainy google streetview pictures. While I would have loved to visit this incredible island to provide my time and skills by volunteering at a conservation organization, this is no longer an option for me or any like minded young professionals passionate to pursue wildlife conservation. So what will happen to the organisations that are dependent on foreign volunteers and tourism for funding and assistance? We sat down with the volunteer coordinator for the Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue Center, Sylvia Gan, to find out more about what one organization is doing to stay afloat. Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue Center, located on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, is a rehabilitation center for wildlife that was bound for sale in the illegal wildlife trade. The center itself houses sun bears, slow lorises, Sulawesi macaques, tarsiers, cassowaries and many other birds that have all been rescued. In order to handle the large amount of care that these animals need, Tasikoki hosts up to 10 volunteers at a time during the peak season in June to August. Most of these volunteers are European tourists or students on their summer holidays, which they’ve given up to create enrichment food and activities for the animals in captivity. "We don't know how it's going to stress the animals out" During mid-February, Ms. Gan started to notice that there were no more bookings for volunteers, a sight which was fairly unusual for this time of year. Then, seemingly overnight, volunteers, school groups and tourist bookings virtually disappeared due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. Sylvia, a long term volunteer herself, was recommended to return to her home in Singapore as well. While these volunteers prove crucial to the everyday functioning of the conservation organization, her concern lies more deeply with the mental health of the animals in the long term, “if [the covid lockdown] goes on for a long time, like over a year or so, it’s really hard to measure because we don’t know how much it’s going to stress the animals out if they don’t get enough variability in their diets and environment”. More seriously, is the impact that the lack of tourism has on Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue Center whose main source of revenue comes from hosting school trips and tourists who come to see the vast grounds and unique animal inhabitants. “We’re not making money but we still need to pay the keepers, the wildlife still needs to eat every single day.” Sylvia worries, “Those costs don’t decrease”. Currently, many conservation organisations globally are facing similar concerns, with experts on panels for the Ape Alliance and One Stop Borneo debating the use of tourism to fund conservation during virtual events. While many conservationists argue for increased funding from governments, it is unlikely to become the reality in many biodiversity hotspots. Instead, Tasikoki has turned to the age-old tactic of crowdfunding to keep the organization afloat. They’ve raised enough money for wages and food for the animals for the next few months thanks to the strong connections of Tasikoki’s founder, Dr. Willie Smits. For now, Tasikoki is lucky to be able to continue its great work, but who knows how long that money will last or how long this global lockdown will last. Until we’re all free to travel again, many conservation groups will be struggling for lack of staff and funding. One of the greatest lessons that all conservation organizations can take away from this pandemic is that it helps to diversify your funding sources to ensure that your positive impact on nature is sustainable through every crisis. If you’d like to donate to help keep Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue Center around for the long haul, click the button below.
Don't be like Louis. Wear your wetshoes on the seashore.
By Vincent DiringerPrior to working in the field of conservation in South-East Asia, I had not been physically confronted with the amount of plastic waste and pollution that was floating around the world’s oceans. I had read the reports, seen the pictures and videos, but never seen it in person - so my first coastal cleanup really struck a chord. There was just so much trash. Shoes, nets, plastic bags, straws, bottles, barrels. These cleanups became somewhat cathartic, they were also often a wake-up call for those who came to help out, as one group of students found out by finding food packaging inscribed with a use-by date that revealed it was older than they were. For them, the thought that this one specific plastic item had spent more time floating in the ocean and degrading than it had spent being used was a sobering moment. The message was clear - plastics do not biodegrade. Unfortunately these types of experiences weren’t few and far between. We could spend over an hour collecting hundreds of kilos of plastic waste from a single beach, only to return several days later and have the same amount washed back onto shore, this time coated in oil. However, coasts weren’t the only ecosystems affected. While on diving or snorkelling trips, we would find large swathes of reef covered by ghost nets, or discover a jumbled mess of commercial fishing apparatus encrusted in barnacles floating just below the surface. The environmental damage that this plastic was causing was evident, and the need to address plastic pollution on a large scale never seemed more pressing. Plastics can break down into smaller microplastics which are then ingested by all living organisms in the ocean – that is if they aren’t swallowed whole by sea birds, turtles, whales and other large sea creatures. However, these microplastics don’t just affect the oceans. Food webs ensure that within any environment there is constant predation, this means that through a process called biomagnification, the amount of microplastics found in organisms increases the further you travel up the food chain – eventually reaching us. There are many new environmentally friendly options available to reduce your reliance on single-use appliances that generate more waste and harm than they do convenience. Make the smart choice when it comes to plastics and remember the Six Rs:
While I’m far away from the shores of South-East Asia nowadays, the experiences of those coastal cleanups have stuck with me - both physically and mentally. As a reminder of my first cleanup, I have kept one of the hundred commercial fishing weights that littered the beach that day. It now sits on my desk as a constant reminder as to why I’ve decided to dedicate my career to sustainability and the environment. By Kenny PeavyWe know that right now many families are missing out on vacations and school trips and are anxious to get back out there and explore the world. So, while you're cooped up at home, try taking a virtual field trip! With these virtual field trips you can explore new environments and learn about interesting wildlife all from your couch. Take a trip to one of your favorite U.S. national parks! National Park Service Want to see more virtual field trips? Check out this calendar to see virtual trips that you and your kids can join everyday! If you know about any other great virtual field trips leave us a comment below! There's no good way to respond to a dead cat in the field.
By Vincent DiringerWhat do you do when you’re leading a night walk on a remote island and the only thing you encounter is the common asiatic toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus)? Easy. You pretend that they’re a rare subspecies found only on the island.
By Vincent DiringerLondon-2020 Being told to self-isolate and stay home doing nothing can be both a blessing and a curse. You can work on projects you’d put off, call friends you haven’t spoken to in a while, eat an entire pint of Ben & Jerry’s, or even pretend to be a caterpillar and cocoon yourself in a quilt while refusing to leave your bed until everything blows over. All of this seems eerily familiar as I recall my last experience in quarantine, and gear up to put my very professional quarantine survival skills to good use. Singapore-2018 Of all the colourful, interesting tropical diseases one can be infected with when wading through mangroves, hiking across volcanic islands through dense rainforest, and exploring leech-infested lowlands, hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is definitely not what you’d expect. After a colleague contracted the disease whilst out in the field in Malaysia, they consulted a local doctor who assured them that HFMD was not contagious and that they were safe to continue working. Unbeknownst to us, the nation had been grappling with an outbreak for six months, and that the local doctor may have received his degree in a cereal box. The incredibly virulent disease spread throughout the field camp and the decision was taken to immediately repatriate the infected parties to our base in Singapore. Upon our return we informed local health services, and locked ourselves in our studio. Management gave us masks, gloves, food, medication, and we were paid to stay away from everyone and everything for at least a week. So how do biologists pass the time while in various amounts of boredom, covered in blisters and lumped together in a studio apartment? Definitely a lot of intelligent discussions on climate change policy and debates on efficient conservation methods, and not just staring longingly outside windows and facetiming each other from across the room while waiting for the day’s third Deliveroo order. While our isolation was exacerbating our moderate insanity, we understood that it was in the best interest of the population at large for us to stay home and binge Netflix. While HFMD is fairly contagious, it tends to only have mild symptoms, but a small proportion of people can develop very dangerous complications that could lead to death. After a week of isolation and loss of symptoms, we were cleared to leave our prison home and interact with other less insane people. ***
As the world continues to fight through the COVID-19 outbreak, we are being urged to stay home to reduce the spread of the virus and therefore help reduce the strain on our respective healthcare services. While we deal with cabin fever and missing our friends and family, it certainly beats the alternative of being infected ourselves or infecting others. Take it from some broke biologists who spent (an admittedly short) time in quarantine, stay home! Work on your hobbies, check in with your friends and family, play video games and eat a pint of Ben & Jerry’s - we’ll be back outside in no time. |
About the AuthorsThese stories come from several biologists working in the field around the globe. Archives
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