9:15 a.m., March 15, 2016--For 30 days over Winter Session, 24
University of Delaware students trekked through Tanzania, learning about
African cultures and wildlife conservation issues as part of the
wildlife conservation study abroad program.
Led by Jake Bowman, chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology in UD’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR), the group departed from New Jersey and landed in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, on Jan. 7.
During the next month, the participants saw hundreds of birds and
animals such as zebras, elephants, rhinos, gazelles and even a
wildebeest migration. They also interacted with three local tribes — the
Hadza, the Iraqw and the Maasai — and learned about their cultures.
Bowman said the program was important for the students as they
“learned first-hand how other cultures handle wildlife conservation
issues. These lessons will impact the decisions they make in their
careers. They gained a greater understanding of how difficult
conservation decisions can be.”
Laura Manser, a senior majoring in wildlife conservation with a minor
in entomology, said she enjoyed “interacting with the tribes and
learning how they did everything, and asking them questions just out of
pure curiosity.”
Tribal interaction
From interacting with the Maasai, the students learned about how the
tribe’s members are conserving dry season grasslands for their cattle
and how those areas are important to wildlife that use the adjacent
Tarangire National Park.
Through their interactions with the Iraqw, an agricultural society,
the students learned how they are conserving the Nou Forest as a
watershed that allows them to grow sustainable crops. The students
focused on the economic and ecological value of forests such as the Nou
to the Iraqw society.
One of the groups that stood out in particular for some of the students was the Hadza.
Dan Wilson, a junior majoring in wildlife conservation, said it was
great to interact with one of the few remaining hunter-gatherer cultures
in the world. “They don’t have permanent settlements and they were up
for anything. They were fun. They sang and danced with us the last night
we were with them. Just in general, they were really awesome people.
All of them,” said Wilson.
Carley Gringer, a sophomore majoring in wildlife conservation,
ecology and pre-veterinary and animal biosciences, echoed these
sentiments, saying it was interesting to see the American students
interact with the Hadza.
“They don’t have any material goods. They don’t collect wealth, which
is why it’s so hard for them to continue living in this world. Beads
are the one thing that they can have that’s theirs, and it was amazing
because they made all the girls bracelets and they just gave them to us.
I was amazed by that because they were so willing to give away the only
thing that they had,” said Gringer.
Manser said it was interesting to learn how the Hadza tracked
animals, adding that the students were able to make decorative arrows
with the Hadza that they brought back home.
Birding in Tanzania
The students also did a fair amount of birding during their time in
Tanzania, on one occasion getting to see the endangered Beesley’s lark
at the Engikaret lark plains, the only place in the world where the lark
is found.
“There are less than 100 in Tanzania and we saw two of them so it’s
kind of cool we could say we saw 2 percent of their population,” said
Manser.
They also learned about how community-based conservation is at work,
as the local residents manage the area in order to conserve the
Beesley’s lark.
Wilson pointed out that although he isn’t a birder, he found the
experience enlightening and enjoyed seeing the variety of birds in
Tanzania, specifically the giant marabou storks.
“They have a unique appearance. They’re big birds. They probably
stand up to my shoulder almost. They’re not pretty birds but they’re
memorable. We were in Ngorongoro Crater and when we got to camp, there
were a couple dozen of them hanging out,” said Wilson.
The wildebeest migration also served as a great learning opportunity
for the students as they focused on how the migration can be conserved
and how much of the migration takes place outside of the Serengeti
National Park.
“We were in the middle of their migration and that was really cool,”
Gringer said. “There were literally hundreds of thousands of them and
Prof. Bowman asked us to try to count them to try and get a sense of
their population. But when I first saw them all, I thought it was a joke
because there were just so many I was wondering, ‘How am I supposed to
count this?’ But that was really cool and they’re beautiful animals.”
Nou Forest
The students also singled out the Nou Forest as a highlight, with
Wilson and Manser both saying they enjoyed jogging through the forest.
Gringer said that using mist nets in the forest in order to catch
birds was a great hands-on learning opportunity for the students.
“I was surprised because there were other kids on the journey who had
taken ornithology and I hadn’t because I’m a sophomore, so I thought
they would just be able to hold the birds and I wouldn’t. But Prof.
Bowman taught me how to hold them and passed it to me and it was really
cool,” said Gringer.
She also said that one of the most memorable aspects was being caught in a hailstorm in the Nou Forest.
“I was walking back with my one friends and we were laughing through
the rain because there was nothing else to do. You can’t complain. You
just have to keep walking, and we eventually got back to camp and we all
had warm drinks and huddled around the fire. The hard times were really
memorable; they’re the good stories,” said Gringer.
Through it all, the students said they felt that a closeness formed within the group.
Manser, who had also gone on a study abroad to Costa Rica, said she
didn’t know many people on the Tanzania study abroad prior to leaving
and that it was a great experience to bond with everyone.
“I went to Costa Rica last year and I knew everybody that was going,
so this was a big change. I actually really liked it because everybody
was so nice and I feel like because we were in such rough and hearty
conditions, everybody felt the same way so we could bond over different
types of experiences,” said Manser.
Gringer, who said she plans on going to Costa Rica next year as part
of study abroad, said she was “impressed with the character of all the
people who went. I honestly didn’t think there were that many people who
would put up with those conditions and not complain and be so positive.
Everyone was really great and there were times when everyone was down
and we were all exhausted but everyone rallied really quickly and
everyone was really supportive of each other.”
Article by Adam Thomas
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