Jasper Linley-Adams in Honduras
Wednesday 22 January 2025
Jasper was awarded the Evolva Award to help with his research in Honduras
Honduras 2024 This summer, 2024, I was lucky enough to join up with the Operation Wallacea team in Honduras. Studying Biological Sciences and having a particular interest in conservation biology, I felt Operation Wallacea was a great project for me to get involved with.Operation Wallacea is network of academics whose role is to manage and implement conservation and biodiversity research expeditions across the globe, and they welcome research assistants as well as thesis students to assist and carry out their own research alongside the permanent staff. Since it was established “Opwall”, as it’s usually known, has published 640 scientific papers, and its work has identified 72 species new to science. With sites concentrated in biodiversity hotspots, I chose to join the Honduras team with the hope that I would experience all that the sites had to offer. Honduras is the most mountainous country in Central America, with a supposed 70% of the land at over 30% gradient, and true to this, the first part of the expedition was in Cusuco National Park, a predominantly mountainous park covered in cloud rainforest. After landing in San Pedro Sula, I joined up with fellow research assistants and we travelled by truck up through the mountains and arrived at base camp in Cusuco. The views were beautiful, and the noise of the birds and insects was an absolute delight. We began with eight of us hiking up to a satellite camp high up in the park. From there we would get used to the way of life that the staff and researchers in the park experience at these camps in the thick of the forest, sleeping through the heavy rain overnight in hammocks, listening to the various nocturnal animals, including kinkajous, jumping from the trees above us and mucking in with all the daily tasks. We cooked over an open fire and spent any spare time exploring the surrounding rainforest, learning about the incredible plants and animals that make the cloud forest so unique. After a few days we returned to basecamp to assist with the surveys we had heard so much about. At the camps there were specialists in herpetofauna, bats, birds, invertebrates, mammals, and habitat. The datasets for the surveys these academics conduct go back many years and we began helping collect data to add to these. The work involved 3 surveys or so a day and 2 lectures in the evenings about the biodiversity found in the park and the challenges of protecting it. The bird surveys involved early morning point counts along the transects, including spotting a few toucans which were incredible. The bat surveys were particularly impressive, watching the experts handle and measure dimensions of the bats caught in our mist nets and instantly knowing to which species they belonged, from such a diverse range found in the area. My particular favourite was the habitat survey work, as the study leaders are aiming to establish the carbon capture of the forest, to illustrate its importance as a carbon sink. Witnessing these surveys in person was hugely beneficial to me, seeing what exactly is needed to carry out research in testing and different environments, and what work needs to be carried out in order to inform policy and, hopefully, encourage greater protection of biodiversity hotspots by the government. I was then moved to one of the Honduras marine sites and while I was sad to leave the beautiful rainforest, I was excited to see what the waters off the island of Utila would offer. The week at the marine site was spent completing a marine reef ecology course. This involved two dives and two lectures a day. During these, we learnt about the life in the Caribbean Sea, the challenges faced, and the different surveying techniques and research projects being carried out at the various dive sites. During the dives, we noted the species of fish, sponge, and coral we saw, and practised carrying out the various survey techniques including laying transects underwater. The diving was just incredible, with such a wide range of diversity of coral and fish on show. After leaving Opwall, I continued to explore some more of the country, visiting some amazing national parks and spending time on the banks of Rio Cangrejal. I am so grateful and feel very lucky to have experienced this time in Honduras and thoroughly recommend visiting if anyone gets the chance. I would like to thank Opwall for the opportunity and the staff for an experience that has helped my career and exposure to conservation research. In addition, I would like to thank my fellow research assistants for making it such a fun and amazing experience. Finally, I would like to thank everyone that made the trip possible, especially a huge thanks to the OH Club and the Evolva award, without which the trip would not have been possible. Jasper Linley Adams OH 2006-2020