Elephant

This expedition will take you to the tropical island of Sri Lanka to study endangered Asian elephants and help develop management approaches that will benefit both local residents and elephant conservation.

You will study elephant behaviour, ranging patterns and habitat use, and help determine factors that influence elephant densities and survival.

You will assess different habitat management regimes including traditional cultivation practices employed by Sri Lankans for thousands of years, and help establish how they impact elephants.

You will also spend some time in tree platforms to observe and record elephant herds. All this to help develop a management plan that will integrate traditional land use patterns and local communities with elephant management, thus helping conserve elephants and bringing tangible benefits to local residents. The expected weather will be hot, but pleasantly dry. Base camp is a modern, open and airy ‘verandah’ type bungalow next to a scenic lagoon with modern amenities such as electricity, showers and flush toilets

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A day in the life of a volunteer
During a typical day the expedition team will be divided into groups to carry out the following research activities:

Elephant social organization: you will identify individual elephants through photographic cataloguing and conduct behavioural observation of identified animals to determine association and social relationships.

Tree hut observation: you will spend a night on a tree hut at a water hole to observe elephants that come there for water and to identify particular animals using that area.

Collecting microhabitat data of GPS points used by elephants: you will assess vegetation, shade, and visibility for places used by elephants, by visiting each point that the elephant has visited previously and taking measurements.

Surveying and mapping traditional cultivation, so called “chena” fields: you will walk around chena fields and take GPS readings to develop a land use map.

Measuring availability of fodder for elephants in different aged fallow fields: you will walk along strip transects and count and measure selected species of elephant food plants.

Data entry and analysis: you will enter data gathered into a laptop and on the last day present results in small groups.

Elephant radio tracking: there may also be the opportunity to radio track individual elephants.

On most days you will have an early start, whilst on others you may be on a night shift in the tree hut. A cook will prepare meals at base camp where you will return to eat, rest and have a shower. Rest time is built into the programme. Please note that all team members will be rotated through all activities.