Volunteering as a biological recorder using my photography - Ritmo Del Rio, San Rafael, Colombia.

  

This was another placement where I was to tread completely new ground, both with my photography and with teaching. My principal role on this placement at Ritmo Del Rio was to help with their biological inventory project, which formed part of their efforts to officially designate 15HAs of land as a nature reserve. I was tasked with conducting and creating a taxonomic inventory of the local fauna and flora in the area.  

The main way this was achieved was by documenting present species through my photography. My main focus was on the animals present, everything from insects, birds, lizards, snakes, different mammals, etc. I would designate around 3 –4 hours per day for the photography, and a couple hours in the evening for the cataloguing and id’ing.  

This was a huge learning curve for me, as I had only taken wildlife photos as a hobby, not for scientific purposes. I underestimated how many photos I would end up taking per day, (which was amazing), but it really did take a long time to catalogue them at the end of each day.  

This placement immensely improved my photography, and my knowledge of how to photograph wildlife, and of wildlife behaviour, particularly invertebrates. For example, on sunny and hot days, invertebrate life was most abundant and easy to see (as their metabolisms are more active), but due to the benefits the sun and warmth brings to them, they are more active, and therefore harder to photograph as they have more energy and are more likely to fly or scurry away.  

Windy days also brought their own advantages and disadvantages, as the wind would make the insects (particularly flying insects) less mobile as it takes more energy to fly, and theoretically easier to photograph, but when photographing small insects using macro,  the wind would make it harder for me to get clear photos for ID purposes, as any movement at such high magnifications would create a blurry photo.  

And with vertebrates, after consistent hot days, there was a higher likelihood of seeing snakes, as they would have to come down to the river for water. Lizards were a constant, although not as abundant as I would have expected, perhaps due to the incredibly high abundance of bird species. It rained a lot, and when it did, it kind of slowed all the wildlife down, only for there to be a huge resurgence as soon as the sun returned.  

I learned a lot about ID’ing species in Colombia. Vertebrates for the most part were easy, whilst invertebrate ID was incredibly difficult, especially the crickets, katydids and grasshoppers, as there are so many species! For invertebrate ID, the best methods I believe are still live capture, into ethanol, and then ID to species level using species id’ keys and microscopes, like I have done on previous SERT’s for Bournemouth University.  iNaturalist proved a very useful resource, as did using google lens and in some cases, ChatGPT.  

I have to say, having to go out and take photos everyday was a challenge, and it kind of took the fun out of photography for a while. Some days I would have great days, get some amazing shots and find some great wildlife, and other days were a complete dud. At least I’ve learned that I much prefer to have photography as a hobby! Though it was super fun, nonetheless, and was a fun challenge; especially as the weather would change so often!  

I am proud of the system I developed, using knowledge gained from my undergraduate degree. I used ‘what3words’ to geotag the location of each animal I had photographed, resulting in a big data set of local animal presence. I used googled drive to catalogue each photo, along with the associated what3words, on a weekly basis, for better clarity. And I used iNaturalist for id purposes.  

I was also giving English lessons. I had two students, both in their late 20’s, with an already existing good grasp of English. This made the lessons both easier, and harder, as they wanted to learn more advanced concepts, and with my Spanish only being basic, it was hard at times to explain certain concepts!  

But the lessons were enjoyable, and I learned a lot about my student’s lives, and of their cultures (one was from Colombia, and another from Argentina). They both said I was a good teacher, and I could see their progression as the weeks went by, which was amazing to see!  

It also gave me an opportunity to discover how I like to teach. My teaching was most effective, and enjoyable, when I utilised props and real-life examples. One student was a chef there, and another worked in front of house and reception, so I was able to use real life examples, act as a customer, roleplay etc; which was fun!  

Overall, it was a great experience where I learned a ton!