Again I appear to have left this place lacking an update for a good couple of months. It’s just finding the time to write between the work and the recovering from the work. Now though I am coming to the end of my stay in Tasikoki. I cannot volunteer forever, unfortunately, and that time has come, I must move on and earn some money…

Hi All,

Sorry I haven’t been keeping this updated. I have been quite busy, the internet has been iffy and I just generally haven’t got around to doing it. It’s been 4 months today since I have updated it, so I head to the end of my 5th month of stay here in beautiful North Sulawesi I think I should update on the past months. The first month here was jam packed, so hopefully I can summarise the past 4 months whilst doing them justice…

Hi all,

 Unfortunately I haven’t been able to update this in while because the internet is really temperamental here in Sulawesi. It also makes updating through Facebook and Twitter quite difficult a lot of the time too…

So I thought making species fact files to learn some of the basics of the animals out in Tasikoki would be a helpful endeavour. They sent me over a list and at first glance it seemed like a good list and it wouldn’t be too taxing to get the basic information I wanted… As it turns out it wasn’t as simple as I thought…

If it’s possible, people who are interested should try and catch the BBC’s mini documentary Wild Indonesia. Managed to download them and watch them a couple days ago, as they were unavailable anywhere else…

Hmmm, how should I start this blog off? I suppose I best start off with what I am actually going there to do…

In June 2014 I went on an adventure to South Africa for 5 months to undertake a Field Guiding course at Campfire Academy near Hoedspruit. My time in South Africa was amazing! There were so many memorable times – so many trips to the Kruger National Park; Rocking For Rhinos Festival; walks in the bush; amazing game drives; all the amazing wildlife sightings from those experiences; and just generally living in South Africa!…

he past two weeks I have been mostly spending my time at Paignton Zoo gaining more experience in husbandry and enrichment of more species, ready for my arrival at Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue in three weeks! …

So last week I spent four days at Newquay Zoo to gain some more experience in husbandry and enrichment ready for being at Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue in November. The experience from Newquay Zoo was to specifically focus on primates and carnivores. It was a very full four days – it is strange how quickly four days can go. It definitely finished too soon at Newquay Zoo!…

So I went Newquay Zoo yesterday to talk to the Head of Animal Collections and meet the keepers, as I will be starting a week of “Work Experience” on Tuesday to get some experience with their macaques and small carnivores before I head out to Tasikoki. I also got to talk to the Director again which is always good…

Right, well I have now done the presentation at West Midlands Safari Park. It went well. The people who attended seemed to be quite interested, and there were many questions and ideas for further research. Hopefully this will lead to more long term studies at the park and more communication of “goings on” between departments. The presentation also gave other departments an idea of what their Researchers do…

Just when you think university is over and your dissertation is behind you… It comes back to haunt you, though maybe in a good way (is there a positive way of haunting?)…