Tag Archives: hiking

A Taste of Taiwan

The biggest mistake in the decisions I made whilst traveling was to spend only 8 days in Taiwan. Little did I know that it is an absolute gem, not only for its stunning natural history but also the friendly and welcoming people, and delicious food…

I was lucky enough to spend a day walking in Taroko National Park where I learned about the beautiful marble geology of the Taroko gorge.

After visiting Taroko, I went to 忘憂森林 in Nantou. It is known as the misty lotus forest – which was surrounded by tea plantations and a very peculiar swamp forest at the top of a very steep hill. Some referred to it as the daemon forest but I am not sure if that is its actual name.

 
Hopefully, I will return to this wonderful country again in the future.
 

In Sulawesi, as an Entomologist!

During the field seasons of 2012 and 2013 I was the entomology team leader at Operation Wallacea, Indonesia. The country of Indonesia is a huge country made up of around 18,000 islands across 5,000km. With a population of around 260 million people, and an incredible diversity of approximately 730 different languages. It is unsurprising, therefore, that the island biogeography provides a hot-house for speciation in this tropical island region with an incredible examples of adaptation and endemism. The Wallacea region, named after the famous naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace

I worked in the main base for the university students doing the jungle training course, and the starting point for school students in south Buton is the village of Labundo. I conducted lepidoptera pollard surveys, banana baited bottle canopy arthropod surveys and Dung beetle surveys in both natural habitats and disturbed agricultural ecosystems. As well as this, I conducted rapid biodiversity assessment of termites using the standard transect method.