Letters From the Field ~ A Blog

Letters From the Field is a blog written by contributors studying or working with animals in their natural habitats. It is a compilation of their stories and/ or experiences.

If you would like to share your experiences by contributing to this blog, please contact us.

Contributors

Kaitlyn-Elizabeth Foley is a Primatologist and Conservation Biologist. She obtained a MSc in Primate Conservation from Oxford-Brookes University in the UK and a BA in Anthropology from the University of Rhode Island. Her main interests are wildlife trade, primate welfare and behavior, and environmental conservation. Kaitlyn has extensive experience working with non-human primates: in the UK with capuchin monkeys, in Thailand with gibbons, and in Malaysia with macaques, siamang and slow loris. In addition, Kaitlyn is a certified wildlife rehabilitator and has over 8 year of experience working with raptors and small mammals. Currently Kaitlyn is a researcher with the Oxford Wildlife Trade Research Group and TRAFFIC Southeast Asia. Over the past 6 years Kaitlyn has been living abroad in Italy, UK, and Malaysia. She has two beautiful dogs, Stella and McGreggor.

Posts by Kaitlyn-Elizabeth Foley

2011

2010

Gelada

Gibbons - 1

Snow Leopard

Owl Monkey

Sanje Mangabey

Mouse Lemur

Irrawaddy Dolphin

Tarsier

Hanuman Langur

Capuchin Monkey

Japanese Snow Macaque

Reindeer

Asiatic Black Bear

Tonkin's Snub-Nosed Monkey

Asian Elephant

Piping Plover

Slow Loris

Tiger

Long-Tail Macaque

Diana Marsilio is a primatologist and conservation biologist specializing in captive animal welfare.  Her conferred degrees include a BSc (Hons) specialist Degree in Human Behavioural Biology at the University of Toronto (Canada), an MSc degree in Human Health and Nutritional Science at the University of Guelph (Canada), and a second MSc degree – this one in Primate Conservation – from Oxford Brookes University (England).  She focuses on nutrition and behavioral research studies, most particularly on the occurrence of abnormal regurgitation and reingestion behaviors in captive western lowland gorillas and has provided consultations on her work to nutritionists at the Metro Toronto Zoo. Diana has worked with, cared for, and studied captive gorillas in the UK and captive orangutans in Canada with Oxford Brookes University and York University, respectively.  She has extensive animal care experience for a variety of species including rats, rabbits, ferrets, domestic cats and dogs, New Guinea singing dogs, pigs, goats, alpacas, skunks, woodchucks, prairie dogs, donkeys, yaks, parrots, and birds of prey such as Harris Hawks, Bald Eagles, and Great Horned Owls.  She volunteers with several not-for-profit organizations, including Fundación Pro-Conservatión de los Primates Panameños (Panama), Canadian Ape Alliance (Canada), Sumatran Orangutan Society (UK), Great Ape Film Project (UK), and Dr. Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots Program (UK).  Diana loves the outdoors and camping in Ontario’s largest protected forested area, Algonquin Provincial Park.

Healthy Gorillas = Happy Gorillas - Part 2

Healthy Gorillas = Happy Gorillas - Part 1

William O'Neill spent a summer practicum in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo at the Matang Wildlife Center during his post-graduate work in Environmental Studies at Antioch University New England. After his months in Sarawak, he participated in a practicum at New England Primate Sanctuary, during which he provided us with information for our education programs about his hands-on experiences with orphaned orangutans. Following are his first-hand accounts and a photo portfolio of his experiences there.

Posts by William O'Neill

Borneo Cultural Experience

Insects and Plants of Borneo

Gante Orangutan

Gus Orangutan

Doris Orangutan

Ciam Orangutan

Mamu Orangutan

Aman Orangutan

My Summer in Sarawak  - Why I Was There

Danica Stark received her BSc in Primatology at the University of Calgary, Canada before heading to Oxford Brookes University, England to receive her MSc in Primate Conservation. Her research interests have been focussed mainly on leaf-eating primates, and she has studied primates in three different continents. Danica has spent time knee-deep in a swamp forest in Panama with Mantled howler monkeys, where she learned of a human retirement home about to replace the home of these monkeys. In Ghana, she spent time in a forest with high pedestrian-traffic, studying black and white colobus monkeys, and then in Malaysian Borneo, surveyed the charming proboscis monkeys along the Kinabatangan River, scattered with oil palm plantations. In all three of these countries, the similarities were striking – deforestation, wildlife trade, and hunting. With each trip she is becoming more interested in the influence these threats are having on nonhuman primate populations. This summer, 2010, Danica will be in Sulawesi, Indonesia, studying Buton macaques and the interaction with the people they live near. She will then spend some time back in Borneo with proboscis monkeys, long-tail and pig-tail macaques, and orang-utans to name a few, before heading back to Indonesia (to the island of Java), to a primate rehabilitation center with macaques and the nocturnal lorises.

Proboscis Monkeys - Part 2: Stick Your Nose In to Help Save Theirs

Proboscis Monkeys - Part 1: A Tree of Their Own