Olivia Hill is an independent researcher from the UK who has worked with crees Foundation in multiple contexts, from its Manu Learning Centre (MLC) in the Peruvian Amazon to its head office in the bustling metropolis that is London. Now settled back into life at the MLC and conducting her own research project, Olivia (OH) sat down with our crees Journalist, Katie Lin (KL), to discuss the evolution of her relationship with the foundation.
PHASE ONE: IN THE FIELD
KL: What initially made you decide to come out to Manu?
OH: I’d been to South America before, really wanted to come back, and just kind of stumbled upon the [conservation] internship and thought, “This looks really cool – I’m going to give it a go.”
KL: I’m sure they were many, but tell me about some of the most memorable experiences during your six-month internship.
OH: We’re going to be here a long time! I don’t even know where to begin…
Probably the first time I held a snake – that was cool. It was a rainbow boa and somebody had found it in the field and brought it back. Everyone was having a hold of it and I thought, “I don’t know if I want to hold it…” but then when I did finally hold it, that was it. I absolutely loved it. I spent the next few days glued to this snake! And since then, I’ve always loved snakes.
We also went on expedition to Manu National Park, which was pretty cool. It was a long journey down there, but it was a lot of fun to see some species that we don’t have here, like the emperor tamarin – they’re monkeys with white mustaches. We had literally just arrived, we all went into the comedor [dining room] area at Romero [Lodge], and Andy was about to start a meeting about general stuff. Then suddenly somebody saw some emperor tamarins out the window and that was it – everybody was out!
And Piñi Piñi [mountain range] is always awesome. The first time we went up, we kind of got invaded by ants on our first morning, which is interesting to wake up to. I was in a hammock and I could see all these little shadows crawling about above me! Piñi Piñi is always a lot of fun because it’s so different from down here and so quiet. Somehow it puts things in perspective because you’re suddenly up there with these incredible views and you can take a minute to think, “Wow, I’m really in the jungle.”
KL: So, how did you feel when it came time to leave the MLC [Manu Learning Centre]?
OH: It was very strange having to leave after six months because it had kind of become home. I said at the time that I wasn’t going home – I was leaving home, because after six months, the MLC was home. So, it was a very strange experience to go home and it took a few months to adjust back to the concept of waking up in the morning and not hearing the birds and insects and all of the jungle noise. And I live in London, which is about as different as it can possibly be from the jungle! So, it was really weird. The first couple of months, I just thought, “I’d much rather be in the jungle. Why would anyone want to be in the city?” But slowly, you just get used to things, you slowly get back into the swing of things in the ‘real world’, as it’s always referred to.
PHASE TWO: IN THE OFFICE
KL: That transition must have been difficult…but then you found yourself in the crees head office in London!
OH: Yes! Basically, I got back to the UK and was trying to figure out what to do. I was doing the usual applying for jobs and not really getting anywhere, and then an internship in the crees office popped up and I thought, “Oh, that could be interesting.” So, I applied for that and got the job – they were quite interested to have someone who already knew about crees and had been out to the MLC in the position. I started out as an Ambassador Program Intern and then I became the crees Sales Assistant after about four months.
KL: What was it that made your position in the office interesting?
OH: It was just really nice to be up-to-date with what was going on out in the field, even though I wasn’t there. It was so much fun to be able to talk to new volunteers and interns who were just applying or booking and tell them a bit about the jungle before they went out.
It was also interesting to see things from a different perspective because when you’re out in the jungle, you’re very much focused on the jungle. You don’t think about what’s going on behind the scenes in London or Cusco.
KL: Were there any aspects of your job that were particularly challenging?
OH: One of the challenges was, again, having a different perspective to other people, because pretty much everyone else in the office is mainly based in the office…some of them have been to the MLC for short periods of time, but I was the only one there who had had a long-term experience at the time. So it was challenging at times trying to reconcile different perspectives of the jungle with the reality at the office.
PHASE THREE: IN THE PROJECT ROOM (AND BACK IN THE FIELD)
KL: So, you’re back in the jungle now – and this time as an independent researcher, which is really exciting. How did this most recent trip come about?
OH: I started a master’s in conservation and biodiversity at the University of Exeter and I knew that I’d be able to do a research project as part of that. I’d always talked about coming back, literally from the minute I got back the first time, so it’d always been in the back of my mind to come back one day. It worked out with my master’s that I could fit it in and make it part of my research.
KL: Tell me about your project then! What will you be up to over the next 12 weeks?
OH: My project is on the habitat selection and ecology of dendrobatides and aromobatides, and I’m focusing on three species, which are Ameerega macero, Allobates conspicuus, and Allobates trilineatus. Basically, I’m looking at whether they’re living in all three different forest types and their abundance in the different forest types, so whether they may be more abundant in SLR [Selectively Logged, now Regenerating forest] versus CCR [Completely Cleared, now Regenerating forest], for example. I’m also looking at where they are in relation to the streams, hence the fact why the transects are perpendicular to the streams. So, it’s seeing whether they’re all very close to the stream or whether they’re more spread out.
KL: It sounds like you’ll be spending lots of time in the rainforest you missed so much…apart from being back out in the field, what has been the best part about returning to the MLC Reserve so far?
OH: It’s been really nice to see some familiar faces, of people who I haven’t seen in a long time. And just to see frogs and catch frogs…even if they’re not my study species! It’s just nice to be back here getting to know lots of different people and to be part of the MLC community again.
Text & photos by Katie Lin
