Osou has the endearing quality of always saying “I’m old and tired” right before powering off at breakneck speed up a forty-five percent incline, machete in hand, slicing open a fresh trail as he goes. I grin, shake my head, and take off after him…
Adventure
Trekking through the land of giants
There-s a very special place in the world where the tallest tropical trees grow. This is our journey into the heart of that place.
Into the heart of Danum Valley
Into the Heart of Danum Valley
10 reasons to go on a rainforest adventure
With the tapestry of life untangling at its fastest in the wildlife-rich tropics, purposeful adventures in rainforests have never been more important. I’m a big believer that the more people that get to experience the wonder of Earth’s greatest ecosystem, the more will choose to defend it. So whether you’re […]
Fieldwork flops: from collapsed bridges to cloud forest cults
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. And when fieldwork throws up problems, write a blog post about it. I’m a big fan of people that talk about failures. It’s probably a British thing. Truth is, fieldwork has so many moving parts, so many things that can go slightly awry—or […]
Canoeing with caiman in search of anaconda
On our weekend off, we drove out of the steep mountains, cow fields and landslides of the Andes and into the pan flat grasslands of the Llanos. The Llanos is a strange biome found only in Colombia and neighbouring Venezuela. It’s sort of savannah-like with patches of forest that have […]
How climbing trees can save species
Remember the good old days of secondary school biology? You used to just grab a quadrat, throw it on the floor and count how many ladybirds were inside. A lot of conservation research isn’t all that different from this. Simple is good. Quadrats are pretty. But when your study organism […]
52 things to do in a rainforest
A tropical rainforest, apart from being galalactically important, is also just a swell place to be. Sure it’s sweaty, sometimes there are leeches, and sometimes those leeches wriggle into places they shouldn’t. But for the most part a rainforest is one of the best places you can ever visit. Here […]
I once had a leech on my willy
Picture this if you dare. I’m less than halfway through a morning of traipsing through the rainforest collecting dung beetle traps when the sudden urge to empty my bowels hits. To many a tropical ecologist this is not a problem. Simply drop your sweaty trousers, pick a suitably unprickly leaf […]
Cloudwiches
Our little car chugged through the mist. In the summer, this mountain pass overflows with cyclists–the legendary route up the Col de la Madeleine is amongst the steepest and most challenging in the Tour de France. The road was empty though in the October chill and as we ascended a […]