Description

A biological internship at Un poco del Chocó is a great opportunity to join our team and assist in our day-to-day activities to study and protect the wildlife of the Andean Chocó. Our interns learn about the different field methods and survey techniques we use to monitor and study the diverse flora and fauna of the nature reserve. They help our research team to collect data for various research projects and thereby gain theoretical and practical knowledge in tropical ecology and obtain hands-on research skills. Furthermore interns assist us in the reserve management and directly support our conservation efforts with their participation in our reforestation activities and forest school project.

Contents

Research projects

Interns help us with data collection (field work), data management and analysis (computer work) for our different on-going research and monitoring projects in the reserve (see below).

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• Avian research and long-term bird monitoring
  Interns set up and control mist nets; extract, band and measure birds; do regular transect or point counts of birds). Interns will be trained by reserve owner and manager Nicole, who is currently conducting her PhD research on avian life cycle phenology in the reserve

• Lepidopteran project
  To study the diversity of butterflies in the reserve, interns install and control bait traps, catch butterflies and identify them

• Camera trap project
  To monitor the mammals and ground birds in the reserve, interns set up camera traps, replace batteries and SD cards regularly, check the footage and identify mammal and bird species

• Research on flower ecology and hummingbird-plant pollination networks
  Interns assist in monthly flower surveys, set up time-lapse cameras in front of flowers and analyze the camera footage for hummingbird-plant interactions

• Fruit phenology and abundance
  To assess changes in fruit availability interns assist in monthly fruit surveys

• Insect abundance
  Interns set up composite insect traps and analyze captured insects to measure fluctuations in monthly insect abundance

• Assistance in research projects of other students or researchers

• Data management (data entry and analysis)

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Reserve management and conservation efforts

Interns will also spend a few days per month on conservation-related activities.

• Trail maintenance (cleaning, repairing and renewing trails, stairs, and signage)

• Reforestation project (monitoring of seed germination and sapling growth)

• Forest school project (planning of environmental education workshops for local kids and schools)

• Outreach (producing content for our social media and blog)