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An interview with Ashley Anne Wick (FFT Insect Team Coordinator), by Laura Wells (FFT Intern)
Intern Laura interviewed our Insect Team Coordinator Ashley on the 3rd of September 2010, and discovered everything about her work here with Fauna Forever Tambopata, as well as her funniest and scariest moments in the jungle.
Name: Ashley Anne Wick
From: Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
Ashley: Hi Laura!
Laura: Hi Ashley. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. Let’s start with a brief background to yourself?
Ashley: Okay, well I went to Drake University, that’s in Des Moines, the capital of Iowa, and I studied environmental science, environmental politics and biology. I focused mainly on conservation biology and restoration ecology but I also studied entomology and botany. I have always been really interested in rainforests and tallgrass prairies.
Laura: Is that why you chose to work in the Madre de Dios region of the Amazon?
Ashley: Yes partly, previous to working for Greenpeace as an activist I had done quite a bit of research in the tallgrass prairies of the US and had always wanted to come to the Amazon. I did a little bit of research and was astounded by the diversity of the Tambopata and its important place in the research of many scientists that I have always admired such as Terry Irwin, E.O. Wilson and David Pearson. Coming from a background on butterfly research, I was excited to study and live in an area that had broken butterfly alpha diversity records. Aside from that, I find this part of the Amazon really interested with the interface of conservation, native agriculture, tourism and the development surrounding the Inter-Oceanic Highway.
Laura: Wow, I didn’t realise it had broken those records! So how long have you been working for Fauna Forever Tambopata?
Ashley: Well, last fall I met the principal investigator of Fauna Forever Tambopata, when I was working as a resident naturalist at Explorer’s Inn, and through a couple of conversations we decided that I would join Fauna Forever Tambopata and create an insect team, so that’s what I did in January.
Laura: What did that involve?
Ashley: I have always been interested in the idea of using indicator species to measure biodiversity. So I started some research based on testing whether or not a family of butterflies (The glass wing butterfly – Ithomiinae) could be used as an indicator species. At all the lodges Fauna Forever Tambopata visit, I have established transects in different forest types including local farms, virgin floodplain forest and secondary floodplain forest. I sample butterflies in these forests, identify them, try to figure out the species richness of them and find out if they can be used as indicator species. Of course while doing this I have volunteers join me, I train them in the methodology, identification of the butterfly species and insect preservation techniques.
Laura: Could you describe a typical day of yours?
Ashley: A typical day is; from 8 till 1, I walk transects with my volunteer- catching all of the individuals that we see. We also check traps that I’ve hung from trees and baited with a fermenting and rotting fruit mixture (shown below). In the afternoons we spend time identifying the butterflies that we have caught that day using and amalgamation of photos, guides and keys. We usually release most of the butterflies that we catch but I keep a voucher of each species that is caught. The collection is being donated to CORBITI, an organisation here in Peru. As well as that, of course I spend a lot of time with data spread sheets.
Laura: So do you know what your research shows yet?
Ashley: I am in the middle of data analysis at the moment, and my data has shown interesting things, for instance at one lodges the species richness in one virgin floodplain forest transect, there is an Ithomiinae species richness of 17 and in a neighbouring transect of secondary growth floodplain forest there is a species richness of 6.
Laura: Oh it’s good that your data seems like it’s conclusive then, and am I right in thinking that you’ve almost finished your project?
Ashley: Yes, I am completing my project to return to North America and I am moving to Canada, which will be a new home for me. There I will begin my masters, which is funded by the Canadian government and I will be developing a conservation plan of an endangered butterfly, the Morman Metalmark (Apodemia mormo mejicanus). I am also going to be studying the effect of its host plant chemistry on the suitability for the over position.
Laura: Are you planning to publish the project you did while at Fauna Forever Tambopata?
Ashley: Yes hopefully, once we get solid statistical results, I hope to publish it in a journal such as Tropical ecology, it will be the first publication that I will publish as first author and I am really nervous and excited to write it.
Laura: That is exciting! Good luck with that. On a slightly different note, what do you consider to be the biggest threat to the rainforest?
Ashley: Oh that’s a tough one, there are so many threats to the rainforest but I think the biggest hope for the rainforest is people realising that intact rainforests have myriad benefits for us and I think the future of protection lies in a combination of properly using conservation dollars, sustainable ecotourism and carbon credits.
Laura: I totally agree. Okay enough about work! I want to hear about your experiences in the jungle now. You spend so much studying butterflies, do you have a favourite?
Ashley: Of course! It belongs to the family Biblidinae, and it’s called the Nessaea obrinus (Obrinus olivewing). It’s pretty common but I like the way it’s all green on the outside and a combination of blacks and blues on the inside, which you don’t normally see in the natural world.
Laura: Sounds cool. What’s the funniest moment you’ve had with Fauna Forever Tambopata?
Ashley: Oh there are a few; one was getting lost at SACHA (Read all about it at http://my.opera.com/faunaforever/blog/). Another is bundled up cuddle-fests during phase 10.4’s friaje and Sophia (our mammal coordinator) waking me up and crawling into bed with me because it was so cold!
Laura: Oh yes, I heard about the friaje – I hadn’t got to Puerto Maldonado by then so luckily I missed it! Okay, what about the scariest moment you’ve had with Fauna Forever?
Ashley: It’s difficult to say what the scariest is but the top three mostly involve rats – one time, we were camping at Lake Cocococha at Explorer’s Inn, I woke up and there was a rat crawling on my mosquito net right above my head! Another time Elisban, a native of the Tambopata jungle with an awesome knowledge of traditional medicines, decided that I have Dengue fever, and had prepared the native cure for me, which is like 20 different plants all boiled up. So I took a sponge baths using this water and woke up during the night with hallucinations that loads of rats were crawling over me. Oh and the first time I swam in the Tambopata I got bitten by a piraña – I was so scared that I couldn’t talk!
Laura: Oh dear – none of that sounds very nice! Since you’re leaving us soon, what’s the thing you’ll miss most about the jungle?
Ashley: I think I’d have to say the boat rides here, especially to TRC (a tourist lodge with a research area) and CICRA (another research station) because they are a whole day long and you get some amazing views. Also I’ll miss living without cell phones in peoples’ faces all the time and technology interrupting things. I used to be a cell phone addict and I’m recovering now! Oh and I’ll miss when I’m walking through the jungle and all of a sudden there’s a vine or a tree that’s flowering and it smells better than any cologne I’ve ever smelt.
Laura: The boat ride to CICRA was lovely. Could you share with us the weirdest moment you’ve had while working with Fauna Forever Tambopata?
Ashley: Kim and I were walking at TRC and I thought ‘oh my gosh! Some of the tourists are being so loud!’ – it turned out we were in the middle of about 300 trumpeters. (Birds of the genus Psophia)
Laura: wow, I haven’t seen any of those yet. What about the coolest thing you’ve seen in the jungle?
Ashley: Probably a three-toed sloth (family Bradypodidae) at Sacha vacayoc (a learning centre owned by Newton college) because it’s my favourite animal. It was also my nickname – the native name for sloth, which is pelejita, because I look like a little sloth apparently. Oh and the Giant otters (Pteronure brasiliensis) at Cocacocha, because although they’re pretty easy to find, they have so much personality.
Laura: Those otters are pretty cool! Finally one last question, Are there any links to articles about you or that you have published that you can share with us?
Ashley: Sure – There was a piece just written about me for the Drake alumni newsletter, you can find it at – http://www.drake.edu/news/dbletter/eblue/index.php?article=6155
Laura: Okay cool, I’ll check it out. Well thanks for letting me interview you.
Ashley: No problem, thanks and besitos to all my friends on the Tambopata and Madre de Dios!
An interview with researcher Mary Dinsmore, by Laura Wells (FFT Intern)
28-08-2010. Laura Wells (Fauna Forever intern) interviewed Mary Dinsmore, a researcher stationed at the Amazon Conservation Association’s research station in the Madre de Dios region of the Peruvian Amazon, named CICRA:
Name: Mary Dinsmore
From: Omaha, Nebraska
Laura: Hi Mary!
Mary: Hi Laura!
Laura: We’d love to share a little info about you and your work on our Fauna Forever blog. Could you tell us a bit about yourself.
Mary: Sure. I attended the University of Portland, Oregon, where I attained two bachelors degrees – one in Environmental Science, and the other in Arts and Political Science. I graduated in 2009, after which I worked on a couple of behavioural projects. I’m really interested in conservation of species, and so, I did an internship at the zoo, where I worked on a project on the behaviour of elephants.
Laura: Madre de Dios is quite far from Oregon?
Mary: Yes, I wanted to gain field experience, particularly to do with primates, and found a position to be an assistant of Mini Watsa, who is currently doing research here for a PhD. I had travelled to Ecuador before and loved it, so I was really excited to come to Peru.
Laura: How long have you been at CICRA?
Mary: Two months now.
Laura: OK, and how long do you plan to stay?
Mary: Only a few days more unfortunately – I leave on the 30th of August.
Laura: Could you tell us a little more about the objectives of Mini’s project?
Mary: Mini is looking at the relationship between genetic chimerism and alloparenting behaviour in saddleback tamarins (Saguinus fuscicolis)., with an emphasis on general population genetics and group structure of this species at CICRA. Chimerism is a condition created by the horizontal transfer of genes from siblings to each other, resulting in the birth of twin offspring that are genetic mosaics or each other, and that share over 50% of their genes with each other. The effects of this condition on primate behaviour are as yet unstudied and hard to decipher. Therefore, we are focused on a specific aspect of their behaviour and look at the treatment of twins by their biological parents and the other adults in the group, and vice versa
Laura: Fascinating! Do you need to monitor the tamarins’ behaviour every day?
Mary: There are thirty individuals that have been tagged (one shown above), within five groups – two of these are groups with twins. I go into the field with another person and a radio tracker, which I use to find the monkeys that we have tagged. The radio-tracker beeps when we get close to one of the tagged monkeys – the beeps sound closer together as we get closer to the tamarins. Once we find the monkeys, we turn on a GPS and use it to track where they go. When we are following them, we focus largely on the twins; one of us records what the monkeys do using a technique called focaling and the other writes. We are looking for certain things like food sharing between twins, mating, when the twins are rejected food, catching bugs or insects, as well as the food that they eat. Every 10 minutes we do a scan and write down exactly what the twins are doing. We do this every day for anything between 4 and 10 hours. Also, we search for new groups using playbacks of long calls – if we find new groups we will observe them for about 2 hours, to try to figure out the sexes of the individuals and the number of young. Finally, we tag trees that the monkeys eat from or sleep in, to try to figure out why the tree is important and what types of fruits and sap come from that tree. In total we have tagged 900 trees.
Laura: That sounds like a busy schedule! What have you learned so far?
Mary: We haven’t reached the stage where we can draw conclusions from our data yet, as Mini is in the process of analysing all the data that we have collected.
Laura: So, when will do you expect Mini’s project to be complete?
Mary: It will be at least a year, but maybe a year and a half, due to the sheer volume of data that we are collecting.
Laura: It sounds like a mountain of data! Mini will be publishing all of it hopefully?
Mary: Yes, but Mini isn’t sure when that will be as it depends on how long the data analysis takes.
Laura: We look forward to that! Where do you think we might find it once it’s published?
Mary: I’m not sure yet, but it’s coming from the University of Washington, Saint Louis.
Laura: Great, thank you Mary. One final important question; what do you consider to be the biggest threat to the rainforest?
Mary: The impacts of humans, specifically mining, deforestation, and a lack of political influence.
Laura: And what actions do you think are required to solve the problem?
Mary: Education of local people and stricter government regulations, especially for activities such as mining.
Laura: Thanks for your time Mary. We look forward to seeing Mini and her hard-working team’s work published soon.
Mary: Thanks Laura!
For more information about Mini Watsa and her research, visit www.primatesperu.com.
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