Hello and welcome to the Sumatra expedition diary
My name is Ida Vincent and I will be your expedition leader on this Biosphere Expeditions project, helping our local partner WWF Indonesia with their Sumatran tiger conservation.
Our local scientists Febri and Ifran will train us in all aspects of the field work once we arrive at the Subayang Field Station and Dr. Matthias Hammer, executive director of Biosphere Expeditions, will also be joining us for the first few days, to help with getting set up.
I trust all your preparations are going well, and I look forward to meeting the first expedition team in just over two weeks on 17 July. I will be at hotel Red Planet for the 08:00 assembly. It is important that you are not late, as we have a busy day ahead of us transferring to the field station and starting the training, so we can get to work.
I’ll be about a week ahead of you and once I am in Pekanbaru on 11 July, I will be in touch again with my local mobile phone number and other updates from the field. I hope your preparations are going well and you are ready for an expedition experience, for this is what it’s going to be. For those of you still hoping for a tiger safari, please have a look at the expedition report from last year, available via www.biosphere-expeditions.org/reports 😉
Please do have another look through your dossier too and familiarise yourself with all the information and make sure you have all the necessary kit.
I look forward to working with you on this expedition.
Ida Vincent
Expedition Leader
As regards the research work, have a look below, where methods and equipment are explained. The more you know now, the easier it will be for you during the first two training days, so do swot up, if you can. In addition to studying the dossier, have a look at the “Methods & equipment” playlist. The bits that are relevant to the expedition are first and foremost our cell survey methodology, followed by GPS, compass & map, Garmin etrex 20, PBLs, camera trapping and binoculars. Enjoy!
From our Sumatran tiger conservation volunteering holiday with tigers in Sumatra, Indonesia
Biosphere Expeditions: blogs from the frontline of wildlife conservation and the fight for a more sustainable planet 