Fundraising for elephant research and conservation
My fascination with ethology began long before I can remember. I was only five when I started exploring my garden ecosystem during the school season. In summer I would spend most of the beach day wandering around the tide pools to see what could have been left in those rocks, wondering if I would see an octopus or one of those purple starfish. Now I have no garden and I haven’t seen a purple starfish in quite some time. It almost feels like I imagined it all. Later in life, I learned there was a way I would see my starfish again: conservation. As a young biologist, you hear, see and write that word as if you truly knew what it encapsulates.
Every donation will help me achieve this dream. Thank you very much in advance! Paloma
I moved to the Netherlands when I was 17, straight out of high school. People my age typically wait to find motivation to start another academic journey. I was ready. You could not imagine the joy when I entered the first class of “Animal Behavior”. It was all I ever dreamed of: to finally align and redirect all my curiosity and eagerness to learn in, what seems to me, the right direction and understand how this world works, organically at least. After what seemed like the blink of an eye and an eternity, I was in the last semester of college. For my final bachelor’s thesis, I had to choose whether to start a brand new project abroad or enroll in an existing research team at my home university. Back then, I knew all the theoretical ethology available at university, which for me was enough to start that project abroad or enroll in an existing research team at my home university. Back then, I knew all the theoretical ethology available at university, which for me was enough to start that project.
I moved back home to study elephant behavior in captivity.
It makes me emotional to even begin to remember that experience, just touching that memory lights up a network of neurons associated with a very intense and happy emotion. I spent hours surrounded by wildlife, carrying only my ethograms. I could not care less if it was raining, pouring or extremely hot, I was only focused on my goal. I had to present real and tangible results from my research, my first ever piece of individual scientific work at the ripe age of 20. For months I would wake up at 6 am, head to the subway, then a bus to get there at 9 am and start the day. Besides the thesis I encountered the other side of conservation, which entails a great deal of poo and hay.
I finished my research and presented it to the park and university; proud to say it was the best mark I have ever gotten. Not that I define intelligence based on grades, I was rather happy because I did it, simply the satisfaction of a job well done. A couple months later, a piece of paper arrived in my mailbox, it was the diploma. While holding it with my hands I only saw all the hard work I endured just to get a piece of paper that would accredit me with the title of ̈biologist ̈. That was my first mistake, to think I had to earn what was within me. I was born a biologist, I should have asked the starfish.
I discovered a whole new perspective of elephants during my bachelor’s thesis. Suddenly they had faces I recognized and vice versa –that is a great anecdote. After spending countless hours in the field observing their behavior, I found out they had different personalities: they were gentle, caring and somehow wild and unpredictable. I never felt so fulfilled while studying them, yet so eager to keep learning about them.
Now, I have been brave enough to pursue that itch. I have been studying elephant behavior in two continents, contributing to conservation and making a real-life impact on their welfare. And that’s what I will continue doing if you decide to help me. Africa, for young ethologists, is the epitome of ethology. It is considered to be the heart of that science as the epicenter of biodiversity. This idolized place where curiosity is met and almost fulfilled is for me, right now, just a possibility.
Would you like to support my journey?
I have been fortunate to be selected to join an elephant research trip in Kariega National Park, South Africa with the BTEH team. The goal of this mission is to contribute to active foundational research so we can keep understanding their behavior to contribute to their welfare as well as their homeland. As ecosystem engineers and keystone species they play a crucial role in shaping and maintaining the ecological realm, which entails not only animals but also humans. Consequently, it is crucial we study their behavior and its interaction with local communities to provide real management and ecological solutions to this conflict. Unfortunately, resources and equipment are not free. I would be immensely grateful if you could help support my research journey.
€70 Opbrengst4 Donaties€2.000 Doel
Every donation will help me achieve this dream. Thank you very much in advance! Paloma
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