The College of African Wildlife Management, Mweka in partnership with the University of Florence, MUSE – Science museum, University of Copenhagen, University of Bayreuth, University of Dar es Salaam and Sokoine University of Agriculture under CONTAN Project funded by EU Erasmus+ Program, has conducted field practical trainings at Nkweseko Scientific Station, at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro and at the Udzungwa Ecological Monitoring Centre (UEMC) in Kilombero Morogoro, Tanzania for a period of two weeks starting from 24th of September to 7th of October 2022.
While at Nkweseko Scientific Station, Mweka’s students pursuing Bachelor Degree in Wildlife Management engaged on various field trainings provided by trainers from EU and Mweka. Among the topics covered included Climate data collection and evaluation method (temperature, humidity, rainfall); Mountain ecology, Introduction on field map and use of gadget in measuring trees height and diameter, and position of trees in permanent plots, Vegetation monitoring methods; Introduction to plant taxonomy, flower morphology and methods of describing new plant species; Birds identification and its ecology; Bee taxonomy, Biogeography and sampling techniques; Introduction to Ecological data processing by using R program; Basics of Entomology, orders of arthropods; Introduction to Savanna habitat, physical features and species interaction; & Introduction to Camera traps use, camera trap setting & Camera trap retrieval.
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| From Left to the right: A group photo of Mweka’s students alongside their Rector (middle with colored shirt) and trainers from EU and Mweka in a group photo during program official inauguration of the field training at Nkweseko Scientific Station; College Rector, Prof. JafariKideghesho (left) receiving a T-shirtfrom the Project Coordinator, Dr. Emanuel Martin; Dr. Vincent Lasway giving demonstration on how to set pan traps for bees; and one of the students swaying sweep net in search of insects in areas around Lake Chala, Rombo District. | |||
From the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, Mweka students moved to another field station on the south western part of Tanzania where Udzungwa Mountains are found. While in Udzungwa they were hosted at UEMC. The UEMC is located near Udzungwa Mountains National Park which is the only national park found within the chains of East Arc Mountains in Tanzania. These mountains are famouslyknown for their biodiversity richness and centre of endemism. While here students had hands on training on various topics offered by Partners implementing the CONTAN project. The topics covered included: Introduction to: primate assessment methods; line transects and camera trapping methods; use of R software; field methods in herpetology and entomology; bioacoustics and Citizen Science; sampling and identification of Afrotropical arthropods; identifications and species richness.
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| From Left to the right: A trainer from EU (Mark) talking to Mweka students while in the Udzungwaforest; Hands from Prof Thomas displaying one of the insects during arthropods class; Dr. Mayengo giving lectures to the studentswhile being followed by Prof Thomas; and group of Mweka students pointing hands into Udzungwa Red Colobus monkey (not in the picture) during mammal transect walk in Udzungwa Mountains. | |||
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