Sunday, February 15, 2009

Bat Concervation: Survey Techniques Training

Training is an important part of any field research and is integrated within our survey projects. Research equipment, including a set of harp traps, has been donated to the Educational Biology department of the University of Palangkaraya. Since 2004 traps have also been sent to The Nature Conservancy, Wildlife Conservation Society and Indonesian Institute of Sciences. A series of training workshops has also taken place:

East Kalimantan:
During April 2005 two short training events were organised for TNC staff, conservationists, researchers and students from the Samarinda-Balikpapan area. Training focused on how to conduct a basic forest bat survey using harp traps, bat handling and identification. These events also served as rapid surveys of two important protected forests.

In Sungai Wain Protection Forest near Balikpapan a rapid survey followed by a formal training workshop for local ngo staff and staff/students from Universitas Mulawarman, Samarinda was hosted by Matt Struebig and TNC. The workshop followed a typical survey schedule whereby traps are set in the morning/afternoon and then checked in the evening and following morning, after which they are moved to a new position. The 20 participants gained valuable experience in survey design, setting traps, using taxonomic keys and bat identification. With no known caves in the area, the bat community of Sungai Wain resembles that of Tanjung Puting by being dominated by forest specialists.

In Sungai Lesan Protection Forest in Berau District, less formal training of TNC staff took place during survey work. Participants worked on the survey programme and were trained to set traps and identify the most common bats to species. Having good quality forest cover and being near to known karst areas has undoubtedly contributed to an impressive diversity of bats at Sungai Lesan. Together with a large orangutan population, TNC will use this information to lobby for increased protection of this area.

Central Kalimantan:
In November 2005, a two-day training course led by Dorothea Pio and University of Palangkaraya students Norma, Hetty, Misnandeni and Patur Rachman was conducted in Tangkiling, a cave system about 30km from Palangkaraya. Sixty-five students and two members of staff were trained in bat field-techniques.

Following support from Bat Conservation International a training manual has been developed that supplements existing field guides. The manual was written with Rakhmad Sujarno Kudus and Angela Benton-Browne in both English and Bahasa Indonesia. Please contact us for a copy.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

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salam kenal om!

editya said...

salam kenal juga ni dari didiet

Diana Yusuf said...

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