Student biologists take tropical trip to the rainforest

Third-year students enjoy Imperial's first field trip to Uganda<em> - News</em>

By Danielle Reeves
Tuesday 13 October 2009

Having your packed lunch stolen by an inquisitive baboon isn't something that happens every day whilst studying for a biology degree at Imperial College London. But, as a group of undergraduate students found out on a field trip to Uganda this summer, there's never a dull moment when the rainforest is your classroom…

Twenty third-year biology and ecology students and three academic staff flew out to the Kibale National Park in western Uganda for two weeks in September this year, for the College's first ever tropical biology field course.

Staying at a Makerere University field station deep in the rainforest, the students all got to experience the life of a tropical biologist first-hand. Often rising before dawn, the students got involved with hands-on activities such as mist-netting and ringing tropical birds, including sunbirds and weavers, identifying tropical plants and insects, and trapping palm-sized moths by moonlight.

The area around the field station was also home to a large variety of primates, including the rare and endangered Ugandan Red Colobus monkey, and Olive Baboons, who were fearless in their pursuit of the students' food.

Francisca Sconce, now in the third-year of her ecology degree at Imperial, who attended the course, said it backed up her drive to work towards a research career in entomology when she graduates next year:

"Insects have always fascinated me, so it was amazing to be able to see some huge dung beetles in the wild. The course was challenging but a fantastic experience from start to finish – I would highly recommend it to future students."

Fellow student Tom Barber, who spent four days of the course carrying out an individual project on monkey diversity in the different parts of the forest, agreed that the course was a fantastic experience, saying:

"One of the most memorable moments of the trip for me was walking along a track through the jungle, and seeing a group of chimpanzees emerge from the trees and walk right across the path in front of us – it was amazing."

The course, which was run by Professors Vincent Savolainen and Donald Quicke, and Dr Alex Lord, will be held every summer vacation for undergraduate biology and ecology students.

A selection of photos from the trip, taken by biology student Guo Heng Chin, can be viewed below.