Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Directed Research!

11.16.10


We’re onto the final leg of the semester! We finished up our exams a few days ago and have begun to focus on Directed Research (DR) projects, which is basically the pinnacle of our semester here.


We have three DRs reflecting each of our main courses - Wildlife Ecology, Wildlife Management, and Environmental Policy. I’m in a group of ten students who will be doing research in Wildlife Management, studying the viability of the wildlife sanctuaries in our area. Our question is this: What is the relevance and contribution of communal and privately owned conservation areas to conservation space and range for large mammals in the Amboseli Ecosystem? We’ll write a proposal, analyze the data we collect, write papers as individuals, and do a group presentation for the community at the end of the semester.


We start eight days of data collection tomorrow. We’ll do transects and wildlife/livestock counts throughout 5 wildlife sanctuaries in order to assess the overlap between wildlife and pastoralists and their livestock. Basically, we want to know how much potential there is for competition between these two groups - will wildlife be able to use wildlife sanctuaries in the way they need to? Or will it have to compete with livestock for much-needed resources?


Woohoo!

2 comments:

Chris Whitler said...

Hi Carrie, Chris here and I just returned from being with the gang in Winnipeg. I took some time this morning to catch up with the blog...this is awesome. I talked about you last week as I led the students through similar discussions that we had had. We did those questions about our dreams and who we thought we were made to love. I talked about you a bit and how you're doing the very thing you were put together to do. Thanks for sharing your journey here. This is great fun to read. Thanks for your passion!

Carrie said...

Chris! Wow! Thank you so much! I am so encouraged! I remember having difficulty when thinking about my place in the world during your week. I've certainly come a long way in falling into place and letting my heart be exactly what it is! You've been an inspiration!