My
name is Alexandra McCallum, I’m a 21 year old student from Canada and for the
past four weeks I’ve been volunteering with MCSS to acquire a feel for the
field of conservation biology. I spent my first two weeks in the North on the
Coral Reef Restoration project at Fisherman’s Cove and then moved South to work
on the Banyan Tree Terrapin project. Since having been at the Banyan Tree, I
have been able to see many of the tasks at hand and got a feel for the work
that is done here. I arrived in the South on a Monday afternoon, where I got to
meet everyone working on the project and was shown around the facilities a bit.
I then officially started on the Tuesday and already had a bunch to do on my
first day, which I was very excited about! I went out with the team to check
for terrapins in the traps located at different pond sites, as well as add bait
to the traps. This is done in the morning and in the afternoon (at 9am and at
2:30pm). However, we did not find any terrapins that morning. Following the
trapping, we joined Vanessa who was removing Water Hyacinths, an invasive plant
species that take up vital living space for the terrapins.
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| pulling out the water hyacinths |
This took us the rest
of the morning as there were a lot to remove! After lunch, I went to go check
out the Giant Tortoises, which are held in an enclosure behind the offices.
They were extremely gentle and loved to be pet. One even tried to climb out of
the water onto the rock I was sitting on just to get a bit of affection! At
2:30,we went out again to check the traps and found a terrapin!
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| cute baby terrapin! |
I was very
excited to have gotten to see one on my first day as I did not expect this to
be a common occurrence. Once back, I watched how Rebecca and Megan measured and
tagged the terrapins and put them into the rehabilitation jacuzzis, where they
stay until they are released back into their respective pond sites the next
day. It was about 4pm by then so everyone started to gather their things and
head home.
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| turtle monitoring team |
The following day, I came in expecting to do the exact same thing
but in fact it was quite different. I went with Vanessa to do beach patrolling
for turtle tracks and nests.
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| beach patrol on Anse Grand Police |
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| beach clean up! |
We also brought garbage bags along to pick up
trash along the beaches. We spotted green turtle tracks and a new nest that had
been made the day before,it was really cool to see! One thing that really
surprised me however was the amount of trash along the beach.We picked up 2
garbage bags full of flip flops, plastic bottles, glass and just waste left
behind or brought in with the tide.We patrolled several beaches, including some
surrounded by lush forests, and were all really beautiful. Once we got back, I
shadowed Evita as she gave a tour to some of the hotel guests,so that I would
also be able to give tours of the premises when needed. The next two weeks
followed the same outline but remained really interesting. One day we even
caught seven terrapins! Overall, this has been a great learning experience for
me and I highly recommend taking part in these projects, as you are guaranteed to
always find something to do!
