 ug wildlife survey course helped students build practical skills ug wildlife survey course helped students build practical skills ug wildlife survey course helped students build practical skills webmaster thu 5102018 11 a course in wildlife survey techniques was recently offered for students and faculty in the departments of biology forestry and environmental science at the university of guyana ug and included a field portion a release from the organisers of the course said that classroombased portion of the course was delivered by guest lecturers dr burton lim of the royal ontario museum and dr matt hallett of the university of florida and jacksonville zoo gardens the release said dr lim is an expert on small mammals in the tropics particularly bats and has been working here since the initial surveys ahead of the georgetownlethem highway and iwokrama forest in 1990 dr hallett is the founder of the rupununi wildlife research unit and has been studying jaguars and their prey in the rupununi for the last eight years the lectures were open to the public and delivered at ug s turkeyen campus from 59 march 2018 the field portion of the course was hosted at yarrowkabra training centre 1216 march 2018 via a donation of the space by the guyana forestry commission experts from the rupununi asaph wilson south rupununi conservation society eon gray south rupununi conservation society kenneth butler surama ecolodge and fernando li caiman house research station joined dr hallett and dr lim in helping students build the practical skills required for undertaking wildlife research the release said students developed practical skills through daily sampling of birds mist nets surveys handling animals for taking body measurements and banding conducting point counts among other tasks overall students faculty and instructors documented 18 species of reptiles and amphibians 6 frogs 7 lizards 3 snakes 2 caiman 98 species of birds 12 species weighed and measured and 24 species of small mammals 22 bats 2 rodents and 15 species of mediumlarge mammals tayra deer agouti porcupine armadillo opossum and 3 species of primates the release said that one resounding fact highlighted from the course was the value of bringing students and faculty together with expertise existing in the country students remarked that incorporating the instructors from the rupununi gave the course a mixture of professional and cultural knowledge that created a beautiful and educational mix the course was supported by an academic programme to strengthen technical capacity for natural resource management in guyana the release said that the programme is funded by the norwegian agency for development cooperation norad under the title achieving a green state building human capacity for natural resource management in guyana the project aims to place the university of guyana at the forefront of highimpact academic research on natural resource management the release added article adapted from  https wwwstabroeknewscom 2018 news stories 508 ugwildlifesurveycoursehelpedstudentsbuildpractical  faculty of agriculture forestry faculty of natural sciences 