Neotropical Wildlife Biology

Catalog description

This on-campus and international field course combination provides participating students with a broad introduction to the research process in field ecology, with literature and hands-on examples drawn from the fauna and flora of coastal Patagonia (Argentina), an area that provides us with unprecedented access to both marine and terrestrial wildlife as well as exposure to conservation challenges and success stories. The course begins in the latter part of the Fall semester ( BIOEE 2525 ) when it meets twice weekly for seven weeks, largely to discuss relevant papers from the scientific literature with an emphasis on best practices in designing field studies to address questions in Neotropical ecology, behavioral ecology, conservation, and evolutionary biology. During the 2+ week field component in January ( BIOEE 2526 ), students travel among field sites in Patagonia and put this knowledge to work in an experiential context by designing and implementing a series of research projects, including numerous short 'blitz' projects and several longer, more intensive independent projects; many of these field studies involve close-hand observations of marine mammals, penguins, or other seabirds. This course ( BIOEE 2527 ) is focused on building skills in data analysis and scientific writing, based on the data collected in the field by each student.