Kew Gardens Field Course – Danum Valley Field Centre 2023
Kew Gardens recently sent it’s first field course to Danum Valley Field Centre! The group was led by two lecturers – Dr Kalsum Mohd Yusa and Dr Katherine Ann from Kew Gardens. The two week programme was filled with an excellent mix of interesting lectures and hands-on activities in the surrounding forest. The students worked together with SEARRP’s most experienced Research Assistants to learn how to set dung beetle, butterfly and light traps and a set a plot for looking at nocturnal termite activity. The students also tested out the Forest Integrated Assessment (FIA) tool, which enables non-experts to successfully assess forest quality by using the application.
Dung beetle trap
Insect survey
Evening Light Trap
Lucky Kew Gardens Field Course Students got to see Elephants!
Students had the chance to visit Innoprise-FACE Rainforest Rehabilitation Project (INFAPRO), to learn about the diversity of mushrooms with a senior lecturer from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Dr Jaya Seelan. While at INFAPRO the students visited old logging sites (Coupe 88 and Coupe 89) that were intensively logged in the 1980s but have been part of the forest rehabilitation programme since 1992. During the visit, the students were amazed to see the variety of species that have returned as a result of the rehabilitation project including insects, dipterocarp trees, birds and other rare wildlife. We are thrilled that Kew Gardens chose to work with SEARRP to host their first Danum Field Course and we are looking forward to welcoming the back in the near future!
Visit to INFAPRO with Kew Gardens field course group and Dr Jaya from UMS
