The trip is run by an organisation called Operation Wallacea www.opwall.com who do many trips for Biology A-level and University students. They are all run and set in real scientific research locations with scientists who are working there full time in places such as Galapagos, Guyana, Indonesia, Madagascar and many more. The projects are for conservation and research and the expeditions they host are designed with specific wildlife conservation aims by identifying areas that need protection. The students that do take this trip help to take surveys of all the wildlife they find. This so far has resulted in 30 new vertebrate species being discovered, 4 “extinct” species being rediscovered and £1.5 million from funding agencies being used to set up best practice management examples at the study sites.

During this trip I will get the opportunity to stay in a cloud forest, where we will be ascending into the canopy of the trees, measuring density of terrestrial wildlife and surveying many types of birds, invertebrates, herpetofauna, mammal and even bats. During the nights we also get to set up light trap to catch and record many different types of moths.

When we reach the second week we will be heading down to the coast, where we will be counting and recording measurements and different species of fish at this reef. Unfortunately lionfish have been introduced here and are starting to kill of the rest of the fish, they are an invasive species, so any lionfish we come across will be carefully caught and handled till we get back to the surface where we will dissect them to examine what they are eating.

I am extremely excited about this opportunity and can’t wait to see rare animals such as jewel scarabs and tapirs! I hope I can get the funding together for this as it will not only be a once in a lifetime opportunity but it will also give me a journal that gets peer assessed and viewed when I apply for university. Thank you for your donations!