Fig 1: Lion-tailed macaque
Imagine yourself sipping a cup of coffee (or tea if you don’t like
coffee) sitting on a wooden log in a thick rainforest, counting the number of
Malabar Giant squirrels and an outburst of chirping by a group of birds near
you with occasional sights of flying lizards (Draco). If you are puzzled by the
names, do not panic. I was as clueless about Draco as you are now! Seems like a
distant dream in the rainforests of Amazon, right? No, you are wrong, it’s an
eight-hour bus journey from Bangalore to Agumbe Rainforest Research Station
(ARRS) along the western ghats, founded in 2005, by a leading Indian
Herpetologist Romulus Whitaker. Whitaker saw his very first king cobra here in
1971 (Thanks Wiki!).
As a kid, I used to pass by Agumbe several times during summer vacation to
meet my grandmother, without understanding the ecological importance it holds.
The place where Malgudi days was shot was the only place which amazed me in
Agumbe, the ghats however gave me a chill every time I had to pass through
them. My uncle’s brief interaction with Romulus Whitaker never bothered me
much. Why am I talking about Agumbe in the first place, all thanks to PRiMER
(Primer to methods in ecology and research) 2019 conducted by Gubbi Labs, this
nature trip has changed my perspective to reptiles in particular. I have a lot to talk about the place now!
Giving a little introduction about PRiMER, I would like to term it as a
week-long surprise or in short, the surprise week. It consists of an intense
course on Ecology and its research methods.
Mind you! ecology and conservation are not the same! (It also does not
mean ecologists are heartless.)
My main objective to attend this course was to understand the statistics
used for ecological data, to understand what are ecological problems and ways
to address them. To add to this; it also connects you with amazing people.
Of course, I learnt way more than that. Here, in this blog putting it
in words just makes all the lessons etched.
Fig 2: Green vine snake
Day 1 involved introduction to research, day 2: statistics; day 3:
visualisation and mapping; day 4: data collection and sampling methods; day 5:
research writing; day 6: putting the learning into practice.
The mentors of Gubbi Labs make this course a worthwhile experience. The
whole team included people from various backgrounds, and hence consisted of a
holistic team.
Statistics class did teach me that rarer things occur rarely; remember
the normal distribution Bell curve. But when it comes to uniqueness of people,
I guess we don’t follow a Bell curve.
Fig 3: Roux's forest lizard
The whole process made me understand the beauty of research. Research
tells a story about the data characters and how the data led its life to
enlighten humans about things which he/she would not have found out by himself/herself.
It is a combination of science, art and technology. If the process of research
is followed in a right way then, no observations are considered wrong.
As mentioned, the whole week was full of surprises be it having dinner
on the same table where the King Cobra was laid a few minutes earlier or looking at flying lizards everywhere, understanding that the research done on frogs
is very little and coming to terms with the fact that male king cobra eats
the female cobra (Yes! You heard it right!).
Fig 4: Malabar gliding frog
The last day was for presentation on a project derived from the week
long course. We had to come up with a topic which should be a valid research
question and give a proposal on how to make it possible. The topic that I chose
coming from a Geoinformatics background was: Vegetation Structure Distribution
using L-band SAR image for Mangroves. Please write to me if you want to discuss
about it.
I was totally confused about the topic and I could not actually come up
with an ecological research question. But I did understand the importance of
it. While pursuing a career of research we actually need to be very aware of
the research question and we should constantly be conscious of the methods, its
feasibility and the available time. A valid research question which is not a
replica of any previous study has a great potential to pave ways for many more
research questions. Conducting the research is not more important than finding
a good research question. For finding a good research question just do one
thing: take a break and read many journal papers (Sounds easy? Sure, not๐).
Unfortunately, I cannot remember the names of all species which I
saw but I think I am now able to understand research in a better way and
moreover I am able to understand the correct methods to follow for a
successful research to manifest.
Cheers to the whole team, Gubbi Labs and Agumbe (ARRS)! Now that everything's written,
it would be even better if I am able to actually practice it. Kudos to all
involved! The purpose is served!
A special thanks to ILK Labs without whom this experience would have
been impossible (I mean it!).
Fig 5: Draco/ Flying lizard/ Gliding lizard
Thanks, Harsha (harsha.jt94@gmail.com) for sharing these amazing photos and their names!
PS: I do know that we saw some important species like cobra, pit viper,
giant squirrels, Draco, Malabar gliding frog, grey hornbill, tarantula! All
these have taught me a very subtle message which is: we need to be aware of the
surrounding while maintaining the inner peace! If you feel information about
any species is incorrect please enlighten me at adithi@ilklabs.com.
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