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 3^rd 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!