Virtual field trip

THE INTERNATIONAL travel ban did not stop Portsmouth University students from coming to Malaysia for their field trip.

When the Covid-19 pandemic engulfed the world, these Bachelor of Science Environmental Science students organised a virtual trip instead.

In early May, they spent three days collecting field data for their course module and learning about conservation issues in Malaysia.

The topics they covered included sea turtles in Malaysia and how the Perhentian Turtle Project conducts photo identification research using the facial scutes of the turtles and how that research has helped identify over 350 individual turtles nesting and feeding at the islands.

They also had a detailed briefing from the Malayan Rainforest Station about how the station collaborates with research entities to conduct studies on animals like the flying squirrel and clouded leopard.

The students also learnt how to use camera traps to study the behavioral patterns of the various species.

They were also exposed to the Perhentian Eco Education Project which involves the local primary school children in basic citizen science initiatives such as Coral Watch and the Big Micro plastic survey by Portsmouth University.

The virtual field trip resulted in the students generating reports from the data collected for their varsity’s fieldwork module.

Under normal circumstances, these students from the United Kingdom would have been working with Fuze Ecoteer – a social enterprise conservation travel company – to learn about urban ecology, visit tropical rainforests in Taman Negara and Merapoh and study marine ecosystems in Pulau Perhentian.

Due to the pandemic, the field trips were conducted virtually instead.