Site 7: Kibale National Park | Part 2: Conservation Ecology class (Feb. 9th – 22nd)

Written by Kathleen Godfrey and Hannah Siden

                  After a two-day journey across the Ugandan border and through Kampala, we arrived in the lush Central African rainforest of Kibale National Park, our home for the next two weeks. More specifically, home was the Makerere University Biological Field Station, fully equipped with a library, dining room, hot showers, dorms, and baboons aplenty! Already divided into the Primatology and Conservation Ecology classes, we dove right into lectures and fieldwork. Our aptly named “Eco Team” was led by the fearless Prof. Lauren Chapman, who has kept us motivated through our various field activities, the first of which was a study on forest edge effects. This entailed walking four 60m transects to collect data on air temperature, light penetration, soil moisture content, seedling diversity and tree abundance – very neat stuff.

                  Next, the classes joined forces to conduct a mammal census of the park, comparing three differentially logged forest compartments. While two of the three groups got back before lunchtime, the third one (which had gone to the most logged area, which was essentially a swamp) was waylaid due to many battles between boots and mud (the mud mostly won). One of our favorite activities was the butterfly diversity study, where we ended up creating a butterfly species accumulation curve, which was pretty dandy. While out in the forest with our field assistants Bonnie and Francis, we learned to identify a number of fruit-eating butterflies (our favorite being the gorgeous purple and orange African Leaf Butterfly). We also learned that baboons seem to like the banana mush meant to attract butterflies as our last few traps had their “bait plates” stolen and carried off, possibly for a baboon dinner party.

Francis, one of our field assistants, delicately grasping a butterfly.

                  Today, we set off for the papyrus swamp to look at the different macro-invertebrates (big bugs) found in swamps and forest streams. These bugs act as bio-indicators of good system health. Basically, we used tweezers to pluck out tiny, weird organisms from muck and identify them. We found tons of critters, like water scorpions, marsh treaders, and dragonfly nymphs, to name a few. On the hike there, we stopped by an “elephant graveyard”, where elephants still come and mourn for years after an individual dies, which was really interesting.

Students hard at work picking out various curious creatures from the river water

                  We’ve been lucky to have a good amount of down time while in Kibale, which we’ve taken full advantage of – playing capture the flag, ultimate Frisbee, soccer, and having movie nights! It’s been lovely to have the opportunity to settle in, as we are here for far longer than the other sites. We have nightly campfires, and on Valentine’s Day our beautiful student reps (Kathleen and Lindsay) organized chocolate and banana boats for all, followed by the slightly questionable Valentine’s Day film choice of Inglorious Basterds. Despite the calm of Kibale, we are excited to see what the next leg of our journey in Lake Nabugabo brings!

                  Kwa herini ya kuonana! (until next time).

The baboons seemed genuinely sad and forlorn to see us leave.