Field Research Training Opportunity: Conservation Technology (Peru)

[Information FPI]

Field Projects International (FPI) is currently accepting applications for our Conservation Technology training program to be held this summer in southeastern Peru. 

Project Background: Tamarins are some of the most challenging primates to study. They’re small, fast-moving, and highly arboreal. We collect detailed information on their space use, feeding ecology, and social behavior by tracking animals in person. For our Conservation Technology Program, though, we have developed custom-built, low-cost GPS micro-collars can function on a single coin cell battery for several months in order to track their movements. In addition, we will be deploying slightly larger devices for mid-sized terrestrial mammals in order to gain similar data about their movement ecology, as well as to discover sites for collecting non-invasive samples.

Other technology debuting in the field this year will include devices that conduct automated censuses of animals: identifying and photographing them while also recording their body mass. These along with other new tools, such as smart traps and innovative hair snares that will collect samples along with meta-data then reset themselves automatically, will link to a “giant ear in the sky.” This is a LoRa network in the forest that can pick up small signals from sensors and relay them away from the site to enable remote monitoring.

Participants will gain the following skills and experience:

• Design and improvement of smart traps for biosurveillance
  
• Development of techniques for increasing the signal range of LoRa communications networks
  
• Passive animal monitoring technology: assembly, maintenance and deployment
  
• Data pipeline development for sensor produced data
  
• Daily expeditions into the rainforest for sensor deployment and checks
  
• Observing mark-recapture events where animals will be tagged with tracking devices
  
• (Optional): Writing of operational software in ArduinoIDE/Java
  
• (Optional): Prototyping their own field deployable sensor

Program start dates: May 30, June 6, June 13, June 27, July 11, or July 25. There is a 4-week minimum commitment.

Application Deadline: April 1, 2021

Location: Madre de Dios region, Perú

Program Fee: $1800 for 4 weeks; $450 each additional week (includes food and lodging, transportation to the field station from Puerto Maldonado and back, personalized instruction and use of field equipment).

Note on COVID-19: In the unlikely event that FPI programs are cancelled, all fees paid will be refunded in full, minus a 1.5% credit processing fee. Further details about trip planning, field protocols, and enhanced PPE will be discussed during the application process.

Learn more and apply: https://fieldprojects.org/participate/conservation-technology/