2009 Animal Conservation and Field Study Program
Funded by the Duttenhaver Fund
Earthwatch Institute in Ecuador
Eight students and four adult mentors were the lucky participants in an eleven-day expedition to the cloud forests of Ecuador in July 2009 as part of the Animal Conservation and Field Study Program generously sponsored by the Duttenhaver Fund. The student-mentor team took part in an Earthwatch Institute research project studying climate change, canopies and wildlife in the Santa Lucia Cloud Forest Reserve in Ecuador.
This is the second consecutive year that the Duttenhaver Fund has sponsored the field study program. The gift was inspired by the donor’s belief in the positive impact of international travel and study and matched the Zoo’s interest in developing field opportunities for students evaluating a future in biological science.
About every two weeks we will be featuring a participant's impression of this amazing opportunity.
Read on to learn about their experiences...
Elizabeth Ewart, Zoo Magnet School Student and L.A. Zoo Student Volunteer
Writing about this experience has been one of the most challenging writing tasks I have ever done. Everything was so surreal and magical that I feel like it was a dream straight out of National Geographic.
Ecuador is a beautiful country with so much scientific and cultural value that every day I was able to learn something new. Whether I learned about the Cloud Forest or the animals that inhabit it, which varied by day depending on the biologist I was assisting, I was always able to learn something new about myself at the end of each day. Because of this trip I was able to discover that science is an important part of my life, and somehow it made the jump from classroom topic and hobby to a passion that has me hooked. Being able to be a part of the science and then seeing all the time, effort, and sweat the biologists put into it really put things in a new perspective. Day after day being able to be so optimistic and positive while working in extreme conditions to get the research they need. This passion and love for their work was contagious, it helped energize me and push me forward when times got tough on the long and strenuous hiking trails. I can only hope that one day I have the same passion all the biologists have shown for their field of study. These biologists weren’t just passionate and knowledgeable but they were also friendly. Miguel and Edison knew every plant, Noe and Hugoilto knew every bird and bird call was amazing and inspiring and they loved to share this information with all of us.
All the people who visited or worked at Santa Lucia were really friendly; at first I was too shy to start talking to most of them because I knew about five words and phrases in Spanish. Yet, as time went on I slowly began talking to them through Coleen’s bracelet strings. Coleen brought a ton of string that we were using to make these beautiful bracelets; we would sit in the lodge making them in our free time. Soon everyone including the staff of Santa Lucia would sit in the lodge and make these bracelets, giving me a chance to talk to them. At first the conservations were about the bracelets, and then they slowly branched out into different topics. Like about Noe’s fish farm or Edison being a professional basketball player for an Ecuadorian team, but his favorite team is the Los Angeles Lakers. This helped me feel more comfortable talking to them and starting conservations once I knew our two cultures were somewhat similar after all.
This trip was truly amazing and I am so thankful I was able to go on the Earthwatch expedition to Ecuador. Being able to experience this with old and new friends just helped make this more enjoyable and memorable. I will never be able to forget all the fun we had and the knowledge we earned from this expedition. One of my favorite memories was making the pit traps for the reptiles and amphibians on my first day of work, and throughout the trip being able to see results of what I had helped build. It was really awesome thinking that because you helped the field biologists all this new scientific research would be discovered. I would like to thank Mrs. Duttenhaver and everyone else who had it possible for me to go on this wonder adventure, I am really grateful!
Daniel Setiady, L.A. Zoo Student Volunteer
My trip to Ecuador has been an incredible learning experience. For ten days, we trekked through some of the most magnificent landscape, surveying the different plants and animals. This expedition was physically demanding, but in exchange for my hard work, I received a number of invaluable lessons and knowledge in return.
This experience has given me a deeper appreciation for nature. All of the different plants and animals coexist harmoniously forming an intricately woven web. Being isolated from large towns and witnessing the magnificence of the cloud forests has made me realize how important it is to preserve nature. Ecuador has seen over fifty percent of its forests destroyed since the late 1980’s. It is more important than ever to protect these natural treasures.
One of the things that struck me the most was the passion that the scientists and researchers had for their work. Many of them leave their families for extended periods of time to conduct research at the reserve. They are fountains of knowledge in their fields of expertise and are very eager to share this knowledge. Their dedication to their work is something I greatly admire and hope to have in my future career.
Perhaps the greatest thing that I took home from Ecuador was the friendships and bonds that I formed with everyone involved in the expedition, especially my fellow students. Going into this experience, one of my biggest concerns was whether I would fit in with the rest of the students. But after just a few days, it felt as if I had known all of them for many years. I left for Ecuador with seven strangers and came back with seven close friends.
This experience has also taught me the importance of a positive attitude. Approaching a daunting task with a positive attitude can make completing that task a great deal easier and even enjoyable. This was especially true on those long, early morning hikes, where it was a struggle to put one foot in front of the other. Instead of thinking about how I was getting further away from my warm bed with every step I took, I learned to think of the reward of seeing a Spillman’s Tapaculo and listening to the call of a Plumbeous Pigeon. There was always a reward for your efforts in Ecuador, whether it was happening upon a caecilian or the incredible view of the reserve from the top of the tower.
This experience as a whole has come with many rewards: the satisfaction of knowing that your efforts have contributed to a worthy cause, the friends that I have made and the memories that were created. I have learned so much about the cloud forest and about how our actions affect others and the world around us. This was truly a once in a lifetime experience and I am honored to have been a part of it.
Read about the 2008 Animal Conservation and Field Study Program
