Emmelianna Bujak

Woohoo! I’m so excited because I have finally seen lots of otters! Yesterday I saw a smooth otter in the morning and I was lucky enough to watch this beautiful animal for half an hour. This morning I saw a group of 15 otters, then a group of 11, then a pair and finally a single individual. How amazing is that?! They look a bit clumsy on land but once they enter the water they move so gracefully and it is enchanting to observe them swimming, diving and foraging. I will try to take a better picture if I get another chance! There is so much fresh spraint around too to my absolute delight!

Last week I attended the first Borneo Carnivore Symposium in Sabah, Borneo. The conference was jointly organised by several groups, including the IUCN Otter Specialist Group. It was fantastic and I learnt so much about the different carnivores of Borneo, including the hairy-nosed otter. Many of Borneo’s carnivores are threatened by the oil palm plantations that are rapidly monopolizing Borneo’s landscape. It seems that although some carnivores are able to adapt to this monocultural habitat, many others may not be so lucky. The conference also included presentations about research techniques for detecting and monitoring carnivores, including transect surveys, camera trapping and vegetation surveys, remote sensing and GIS based analyses. I hope that I will be able to apply what I have learned in order to improve my next otter survey.

As part of my education programme I am creating several posters, in collaboration with my extremely talented artist and brother, Jan. The posters are going to be distributed to schools in Southeast Asia, to teach students about various environmental issues concerning otters. I presented one of the posters (see photo below) at the conference and it received excellent feedback. After the conference I was invited to a training workshop for environmental education in Asia, which has given me loads more ideas for my educational programme.

I met so many interesting people at the conference and made some lovely new friends, including some otter specialists. They were very supportive of my work and gave me lots of valuable advice for my project. We even founded a new group- ‘The Asian Otter Task Force’, with a view to try and bring together people working with otters in Asia. The group will focus on attempting to combat the trade of otters and their parts as well as providing training workshops to students and local otter researchers in Asia. The chair of the Otter Specialist Group has confirmed that the otter skin from U Minh was from a hairy-nosed otter. Some of the footprints were also from hairy-nosed otters. It is great that they are still persisting at that park, but I am concerned about their survival there in the long term.

I am now at a nature park in Peninsular Malaysia, which I heard about at the conference. This is the place where I saw lots of otters this morning. The park is very small but rather pretty. There are more monkeys than you can shake a stick at! There are also loads of water monitor lizards swimming along the lake. And of course, I am especially excited about the otters here. The park receive many visitors, including huge groups of school children and university students, and the park staff have asked me to help them with their education programme.

While I was in Borneo we saw so many different animals, including elephants, orang utans, a slow loris, proboscis monkeys, a stink badger, flying squirrels, leopard cats, common palm and small-toothed civets, mouse deer, and many more magnificent critters. We also saw loads of striking birds of all the colours of the rainbow, from kingfishers and bee-eaters to hornbills and owls. I have never really been interested in birds before but many of the other biologists around me were so passionate about birds that some of their infatuation rubbed off. I have actually found a new pass-time in ‘twitching’! The park in Malaysia also has lots of lovely birds so it is a nice place to practise my newfound hobby!

The day before the conference, I climbed Mount Kinabalu- one of the highest mountains in Southeast Asia (4,095.2m). As it was a spur of the moment decision I did not spend much time researching it and therefore I had no idea what to expect. I am relatively fit and healthy so I thought I would be fine. Only problem is that I didn’t know that I am incredibly scared of heights! I found this out at about 2.30 am as I approached the last 3 km to the summit. It was pitch black and I had only my head torch and a guide to help me. There was a wet, slippery rope to hold on to some of the time, but as I wasn’t strapped in to this in any way I didn’t have much faith in its ability to save my life if I put a foot in the wrong place. I was petrified all the way up, but I made it (thanks to my guide who practically dragged me most of the way!).

When I reached the bottom of the mountain I learned of a nearby garden where the Rafflesia flower is grown. This is the world’s largest flower and can reach over 1 metre in diameter. The local name for the flower translates as ‘corpse flower’ or ‘meat flower’, as it looks and smells like rotting flesh! The smell attracts flies, which pollenate the flower. Apparently, Rafflesia only blooms once a year and only stays in bloom for one week, so only the lucky few people ever have the chance to see this flower in full bloom. Well, my luck was in as the day I visited the garden one of these enormous flowers had just come in to bloom that day! It measured 90 cm in diameter, and was apparently an especially  ’lucky’ specimen as it had 6 petals instead of the usual 5 (the 6th one was much smaller than the others)!

My luck ran out after that as I then stopped at the nearby hot springs to relax and soothe my aching muscles after the climb. When we got out to leave I realized that my shoes were missing. It appears somebody stole them. They even took the dirty, wet socks that were stuffed inside! Eurgh!

I’ve had the most amazing month and I am so excited to be here. I am so grateful to Vodafone and Zoological Society of London (ZSL) for making it possible for me to be here working on this incredible project in such a beautiful part of the world. My project is going really well and things are finally starting to come together. I still have a lot of work to do but I love what I’m doing so much that I can hardly call it work!

The last few weeks have been a very busy time for me. I returned to the UK to meet up with my supervisors and discuss the next stage of my project. It was fantastic to see some of my friends and family again. As I have reached the 6-month milestone, this was also a time of reflection for me. To be honest, I really needed to take a step back from my project in order to gain some perspective. I received a huge disappointment in May, when I was told that I wouldn’t be able to do some of the things that I had planned for later in the year. I had been really looking forward to this part of the project and had spent months making plans, so it was a really depressing time for me. I was really starting to worry about whether I would be able to achieve the goals I have set for myself in the time I have left.

I found the first half of my project much more challenging than I had expected. Initially, I had imagined that I would be joining an established research team in Vietnam, and that I would be working as part of a team. It soon became apparent that this would not be the case, and that I would actually be working independently most of the time. This took some getting used to. I also experienced a huge culture shock, which I hadn’t really anticipated. I wasn’t fully prepared for all the bureaucracy that I would encounter. There are also some things about Vietnam that I have found particularly hard to accept, particularly  the general attitude towards animals and the environment. In the main, animals are viewed as commodities to be exploited for the good of man. Wherever I have encountered animals in Vietnam, in national parks, zoos, markets and pet shops, animal welfare tends to be very poor. On my way back to Vietnam I met up with someone who works for a big international organisation that protects wild animals all over Asia. I described some of the things I had seen and the frustration I feel at being unable to help these animals. The man agreed that these problems occur throughout Asia and that although progress might appear slow, things are being done to help these animals. He assured me that although there is no short-term solution to the problem, I am helping these animals by taking steps to educate people in Vietnam about animal welfare and environmental issues. He was very supportive of my work, which was really reassuring.

Two weeks ago I visited a place called Sapa, in the north of Vietnam. This is one of the most stunningly beautiful places I have ever visited. From the endless rice fields carved in to the lush, rolling mountains, to the ethnic minority hill tribes people dressed head to toe in gorgeous traditional hand-woven clothing, this place leaves an indelible mark on the memory and imagination of anyone who has been there. I even rolled up my trousers and got my feet dirty to have a go at planting some rice with the local people. The soft, wet mud felt amazing and it was really fun.

However, there is one incredibly upsetting memory from Sapa that I cannot erase, as hard as I have tried. One afternoon, as we were hiking through the mountains on our way to visit a small village, we heard the tortured screaming and screeching of a creature in pain. Looking down into the fields below us we became aware of two men leaning over an animal with some kind of a carving knife. The animal was literally screaming for its life. At first we thought the animal was a pig, but on second glance it became obvious that it was actually a dog. The dog’s screams continued for at least another ten minutes while the men slowly went about the gruesome business of beheading the dog. Whilst I understand that the consumption of dog meat is commonplace in Vietnam, I had not realised that the animals were killed in this way. I found it unbelievable and wholly unnecessary that they prolonged the animal’s pain and suffering for so long. I don’t think I will ever get used to these kinds of cultural differences. Having said that, I’m sure there are loads of cases of extreme animal cruelty that go on in the UK too (e.g. battery farms) but I just haven’t seen them first hand. Anyhow, I realise that if there were no problems in Vietnam, I wouldn’t be needed here! So, now I am feeling much happier and more positive about my project, and I’m really excited about the new plans I have made for the following months. I also see now that working independently has forced me to seek and seize opportunities that I may otherwise have missed.

One of these opportunities is a project that I am currently involved in. At the moment I am working on an Eco Boat project in the beautiful World Heritage site of Ha Long Bay. This is a fantastic project that takes people on trips aboard a floating classroom and provides them with environmental education lessons. As well as spending time on the boat, the passengers have opportunities to visit beaches, national parks and forests. Hundreds of passengers participate in the Eco Boat trips each year, including school groups, Vietnamese and international students and local community groups, so the project has the potential to reach a huge and varied audience. It is extremely refreshing to be working with Vietnamese people that have a genuine passion for wildlife and the environment.

June 5^th was World Environment Day, and to celebrate this event I helped the Eco Boat team to prepare and open an exhibition of their work, to raise awareness of the project activities. The exhibition took place in Thien Cung Grotto, which means Heaven Palace. This is a 130 m long cave in Ha Long Bay, with striking stalagmites and stalactites, a natural babbling brook and three ponds of clear water. This was a perfect forum for the exhibition as the grotto receives hundreds of visitors each day. The opening day was a huge success. I spoke to many tourists, who were all very positive about the project. I was even interviewed for a Vietnamese newspaper / radio station!

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I am now helping the teaching staff to develop fun and interactive lesson plans to educate the passengers about important environmental issues. Raising environmental awareness is an incredibly important and necessary task, so I have really thrown myself into the lesson plans. So far I have made three lesson packs. One is aimed at younger children and contains lots of fun yet simple experiments that demonstrate important scientific principles- all sorts from showing the children how to make a compost bottle to how to test pH using a red cabbage! The second pack is for older students and contains scenarios and questions for debating. These cover important topics, such as the growing human population, pollution, sustainable fishing, illegal wildlife trade, the role of zoological collections, and the globalization and development in Vietnam. These scenarios provide some information and then encourage the students to think for themselves and make their own decision about how they feel about each topic. I believe this will be more successful than trying to impose a particular view on the students. Finally, the third pack contains lots of fun puzzles, quizzes and games concerning animals and environmental issues. Once the packs are completely finished I will have them translated into Vietnamese, and I will also provide some staff training to ensure the Eco Boat team are able to use these resources to their full potential. The great thing about this aspect of my project is that it will be sustainable in the long-term, as the lessons will continue to be used on the boat long after I have left.

Before I started work on the Eco Boat, I spent a couple of days at the orphanage. It was brilliant catching up with everyone. The children seem so happy and relaxed now. There was another volunteer helping out while I was there and we had a great time baking cookies and scones with the kids. Suzanne and I had a girly night in with Sa and Nhi, watching a movie (and scoffing the cookies!). These everyday activities that we take for granted are still new to these children and it is really uplifting to see their curious and happy faces whenever we play or spend time together. I am so glad that Suzanne and the kids consider me part of their family and that I will be able to see them develop and grow in confidence even further as they settle into happy family life.

When we went to bed Mung read us a bedtime story in Vietnamese. Judging by the pictures it was a sad story about a princess who never found her prince. Not like most children’s books in England, which always seem to have a happy ending! The story must have stirred some kind of a reaction in us all as we felt peckish afterwards. Suzanne, Mung and I snuck downstairs to raid the fridge and enjoyed a cheeky midnight feast together! Since returning to Vietnam I have been waking in the middle of the night experiencing really strong cravings for Western food- cheese and lime pickle sandwiches, PG Tips and chicken pie (I haven’t even eaten this since I was a child!). This is what it must feel like to be pregnant! I am living mostly on rice, noodles, veggies and seafood. In the cities it is possible to get western food, but most restaurants are unable to obtain the import authentic ingredients, so the food doesn’t really taste as good as it does back home. Vietnamese food is nice but can get a bit boring after a while, so I go through a lot of chilli sauce to liven meal times up. I knew I should have brought a few jars of lime pickle back to Vietnam with me!

Just a quick note to share some photographs with you…

The weather took a strange turn this week and we’ve had torrential downpours every afternoon and night. The rain turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it left soft mud everywhere, which revealed loads of animal tracks! This is fantastic as we are now able to focus our efforts in these areas. Here are just a few of the prints we found…

We also found a relatively large otter sprainting site (sometimes called a ‘latrine’). This is basically a pile of old and fresh spraint, and this one even included a couple of ‘anal jellies’ (see photo below). For those of you who are not yet familiar with these delightful entities, let me explain. These jelly-like spraints (that contain hardly any food items) are produced in the otter’s gut and probably help to ease the passage of rough food remains (all those painful fish scales) during normal excretion. Otters usually spraint frequently and this is thought to play a vital role in intra-species communication. If an otter wishes to leave a ‘message’, but its guts are empty of food remains, it may excrete a jelly instead! I collected quite a few samples from the sprainting site and I plan to analyse these in the laboratory later in the year. Now I’m heading back into the forest to look for more!

It’s taken me a while to find the time to sit down and update my blog. I’ve been very busy working at my field site, searching for otters. My day begins at 4am, when I get up and have a quick wash (cold water bucket bath) before setting off to the forest, together with An, my trusty field assistant. The motorbike ride usually takes between 45 and 60 minutes, depending on where we need to be. We then begin our search for the otters. We are looking for any signs that they are in the area, including footprints, excrement and of course the otters themselves. They are yet to make an appearance, but I am still hoping we will get lucky. I’m sure there are otters here as we have found lots of footprints that look distinctly ottery. We’ve also found a few old spraint sites. On our second day in the forest I was overjoyed to find an extremely fresh spraint, probably deposited that same morning. We set a remote camera (‘camera trap’) at the spot to see if we can capture a video of an otter going to the toilet!

Otter poo: it makes my world go round!

As we are trying to conduct the survey in a very systematic manner, we are walking along specific routes each dawn, and repeating these at dusk. I had forgotten how exhausting fieldwork is, but we are rewarded each time with either a glorious sunrise or sunset. In the middle of the day we have been busy setting up camera traps throughout the national park. I have never used these before, so it has been a learning curve for me. I am really excited about seeing what we find.

Children from the buffer zone learning about otters

On our way to work last week I was surprised to see a group of prisoners, dressed in dirty, stripey green and white pyjamas, chopping down grass to clear a path through the park. They were from a prison located on the outskirts of the park. Apparently it is quite common in Vietnam for prisoners to engage in manual labour such as this. Although prison guards accompanied them, I must confess that I felt slightly anxious riding past a bunch of unshackled, convicted criminals brandishing machetes! My field assistant later admitted that he too had been a bit scared! Obviously I couldn’t take any photographs, but the scene looked almost identical to the picture below from the film ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ I wondered how the prisoners felt about doing this work- was it a privilege for them to be outdoors, free of the confinement of their cells, or was it a punishment to be working hard, outside in the scorching heat, whilst being ravaged by mosquitoes and ants?

Whilst walking around in the park all day, I’ve had a lot of time to think. This isn’t always a good thing for me. I had a very bad day yesterday as I began to doubt myself, and my ability to ensure the success of this project. I had seriously underestimated the difficulty of the challenge that I have set for myself. It is very hard work to develop a project like this from scratch, particularly in a country like Vietnam, where you have to jump through more hoops than in many other countries. There is a paragraph in ‘Life of Pi’ that describes the how “fear, disguised in the garb of mild-mannered doubt, slips into your mind like a spy…you become anxious…your anxiety becomes dread.” Yesterday, I certainly felt that doubt creeping up on me, and the anxiety brought on by the fear of failure. I needed to get out of my funk so I decided to make a list of all the knowledge and new skills I’ve learned since this project began. I hadn’t realized just how much I’ve learnt, but I felt a lot more confident by the time my list exceeded two pages of my exercise book! These skills are transferable and will help me during the remainder of this project and others in the future.

So, I’m feeling optimistic again, which is great because I have to be up again in five hours to spend another day searching for my hairy-nosed friends!

The elusive hairy-nosed otter: the subject of my passion and (sometimes) bane of my life!

Hi everyone, I have been very busy since my last blog, so I will try to remember everything I’ve been up to.

Last week I visited Cat Tien National Park with Laura, a friend that I met in the city. We took the bus from Ho Chi Minh City to the nearest town to the park. From there it is approximately half an hour by motorbike to the park headquarters. This shouldn’t have been too much of an issue, but our drivers decided to stop mid-journey to refuel. Laura and I took the opportunity to readjust our helmets and I made the crucial error of standing too close to the bike and accidentally touching the exhaust pipe with my leg! Owwww! I ended up with a huge burn on my leg- otherwise known as a ‘Thailand Tattoo’, due to the commonality of this type of injury among foreigners in Southeast Asia!

Thankfully my leg doesn't look this hideous anymore!

After checking in to a cute little log cabin, we went for a walk in the forest to look for signs of otters. I think we may have found an old otter sprainting site (toilet area) beside one of the lakes. It was difficult to be sure as the spraint was very old, but it certainly looked like it was from otters. The following day we went for another walk. We met the owner of a lodge on the way and he drew us a map to a few important sites, assuring us that we won’t get lost. We got lost. It was fun though and we did finally manage to find our way back to the lodge for a well-earned drink and game of Scrabble! We got chatting to Sylvia, one of the ladies that works behind the bar, and she kindly offered to show us around a bear recue centre that is located inside the park. The centre rescues sun and moon bears from bile farms and allows them to live out their days in the sanctuary of the centre. Sylvia used to work at the centre, and has intimate knowledge of many of the bears. It was clear how much she cares about each and every one of them. We watched the bears being fed, playing in the exercise area and chilling in their hammocks!

We saw big trees!

The following day, I had arranged to meet another lady, Marina, who runs a large primate centre on a small island in the park. This centre also recues animals, often from the pet trade. Happily, some of the primates are actually being released back into the wild. Individuals are carefully selected for the release programme, and those showing any signs of loss of natural behaviours will not be released. In addition, animals are rigorously screened for diseases and the animals are monitored closely post-release. It was great to meet Marina and discuss my project. We are hoping to work together on some of the educational aspects of my project. This will allow me to reach a wider audience, as the primate centre run educational projects at the park, in the buffer zone and even in Ho Chi Minh City.

I returned to Ho Chi Minh City for a few days, to prepare for my fieldwork. This included a couple of meetings and a trip to Dam Sinh market to buy a few more bits and pieces- head-torch, batteries, kit bag, etc. This big market sells just about anything, from nuts and bolts and gas masks to security guard uniforms and even guns!

I also spent a day at the orphanage, looking after the children. They drew some lovely pictures of otters for me, which I will include in a book that I am making to teach children about otters and wetland habitats. I want the book to have a homemade, personal feel to it, with many different styles. Some of my family and friends have also contributed their artistic efforts and I am amazed at what a talented bunch they all are! Please keep them coming!

I am now finally back at my field site, in U Minh Ha National Park. We arrived yesterday, following an 8-hour bus journey and received a very warm welcome from the local community; before we had unpacked our things we were already invited to a party down the road to celebrate a gorgeous baby girl’s 1^st birthday! We were treated to a huge banquet and live music. After the party we decided to go for a trial of ‘night spotting’, to check that all our equipment is in working order. This involves going out at night with a torch and searching for the eye-shine of animals. Unsurprisingly, we didn’t see any otters, but we did see a few birds and a toad. We also heard some rustling in the grass followed by a loud ‘plop’, but we’re unable to identify the plopper!

Today we had another meeting with the Park Director, to confirm that it is okay for me to work in the park. We now have to wait for some paperwork from the People’s Committee, to say that they also agree to my project. Once this is received we should be good to go. A Vietnamese friend did warn me that I would feel like I haven’t achieved much for the first three months of my project as Vietnam is such a bureaucratic country. It has taken almost three months for me to obtain permission to work in the park, but I have heard that this is actually fairly quick by Vietnamese standards, so I mustn’t grumble!

I must admit that have mixed feelings about starting my fieldwork. Although I am excited at the prospect of being in the countryside surrounded by nature, and the possibility of findings otters, I am also a little bit apprehensive, as I am not sure what to expect. I am working under difficult circumstances, with a language barrier and cultural differences, which make it very hard to obtain reliable information. Also, I cannot be certain that I will find any otters, or even their spraint, as they are such elusive creatures. Even if I do not see any otters for myself, I hope that I will be able to develop the basis for a standard otter survey that can be repeated on an annual basis. This will be a very important step for otter conservation in the area and will pave the way for future research and conservation efforts, so I really hope I can do a good job. I also hope that I will be able to educate and inspire people to care about U Minh Ha National Park and the otters that live there!

On the way back to Ho Chi Minh City from London, I stopped in India for a few days. This was primarily for a family funeral, but despite the sad occasion I had a couple of days free to visit some sights with my much-missed boyfriend. I have completely fallen in love with India and hope to return there for longer in the future. Amongst all the poverty and dirt, there is immense beauty everywhere. On almost every street there is something worth stopping to take a picture of. Watching the sunrise at the Taj Mahal was incredibly romantic. Other highlights included seeing the monkeys guarding Jaigarh Fort and shopping for kurtas and chappals in the Pink City in Jaipur!

It was very difficult to leave my boyfriend and family in India when I had to head back to ‘Nam, although I’ve been lucky as I’ve met some great new friends since my return, and they have helped me to settle back into life here. While I was away the orphanage also grew by three! I have yet to meet one of the girls, but I have met two of the new children. Aged eight and ten years, they are both pretty cheeky, but in a good way! The little boy is like a parrot, repeating every word we say in English! We all went to a massive water park this week but it was so packed that we were like soggy sardines in a can!

I got back to Ho Chi Minh City in time to experience the Tết celebrations. This is the Lunar New Year and is the biggest and most important festival in the Vietnamese calendar. The streets are decorated with impressive lights and huge flower displays.  The New Year was welcomed in style, with fireworks going off for hours after midnight. Children are given ‘lucky pockets’ containing money and dragon dancers perform in the streets and bless surrounding buildings. This is a noisy affair that, at times, resembles a bunch of 5-year olds bashing a load of pots and pans together!

Most of the shops and other businesses close for a couple of weeks as people return to the countryside or other cities for family reunions. One of the girl’s from the orphanage invited me to spend Tết with her in the countryside, where her elderly grandfather lives. We hired a mini bus to take us all there and as we all bundled in I wasn’t really sure what to expect. The small house was around four hours away from the city and was located in the middle of a rubber plantation. We felt like we were miles away from anything. When we arrived we were joined by loads more children. In addition to the kids we had brought with us, there were also children from another orphanage and some more from the local neighborhood. They were obviously poor and had no toys to speak of, but they managed to occupy themselves by playing with a rusty old bicycle with no seat and a pile of bricks! We received a very warm welcome from everyone. They all seemed so happy to see us and loved having their photographs taken! Suzanne had a bit of a shock when she asked where the toilet was- As he pointed to the forest outside his house, Grandad  replied “Anywhere, wherever you like. We have huge toilet!” Off she sheepishly went with her toilet roll and antibacterial gel in hand in search of a suitable tree! The family cooked a huge Vietnamese spread for lunch, with noodles, rice, fish and vegetables. Luckily I’m vegetarian so I had a good excuse for avoiding the dog meat we were served, but the others weren’t so lucky….

Suzanne, Toni, Timka...how could you?!

I have also made some progress with the educational aspect of my project. I’ve been busy making educational resources, which are currently being translated from English into Vietnamese. Once they have been printed I will test them out on the children at the orphanage before unleashing them to the wider community! Education is an immensely important aspect of conservation as many people in Vietnam are unaware of the scale of the environmental problems facing the country. By teaching them about these issues I hope that they will become supportive of conservation interventions and take a more active role in protecting their natural resources.

January has been a much busier month than I had anticipated. I travelled up to north of Vietnam for some meetings with wildlife organisations that are based up there. Hanoi is very pretty, with amazing architecture and lots of interesting alleyways, especially in the Old Quarter. Despite being the capital, Hanoi has a less hectic feel than Ho Chi Minh City.

It is very cold and wet in the north of Vietnam at the moment, and I even had to buy some gloves and a woolly jumper! Even though I was very cold, I really enjoyed the north of Vietnam. It is very different to the south and has some stunning scenery.

I spent a few days at Cuc Phuong National Park, a beautiful forest located around 4 hours drive from Hanoi by public bus. I met with a charity there that is involved in the rescue and rehabilitation of victims of the trade in wildlife. One night I was given a tour of the animals, which include leopard cats, civets, binturongs and pangolins. In addition, I visited a primate centre and a turtle centre that are also trying to save Vietnam’s wild animals. Chatting to the management staff, I learned so much about the extent and consequences of the wildlife trade. There are no simple solutions to the problem, but it was great to see dedicated people doing their best to help.

A pangolin that has been rescued from the international trade in wildlife. Pangolins fetch a very high price in the market as their meat represents wealth and social status. As pangolins can be found in my field site alongside the otters, I am hoping that my project will simultaneously help to protect pangolins and the other wild animals that live there.

The charity has some experience in the area around my field site, so they were able to give me quite a lot of information and advice about how to plan my project. Because I am developing this otter conservation project from scratch, it is crucial that I plan it well from the beginning to ensure that things run as smoothly as possible for the rest of the year. However, regardless of how well I try to plan things, there will always be problems that I cannot control. There are things that I take for granted in England that are much more difficult to organise in Vietnam. For example, on my return to Hanoi, almost an entire day was spent buying maps of my field site. There is a huge map shop in Hanoi that sells maps for the whole country, but the process of purchasing them is very official, with lots of forms to be completed before permission is granted. Apparently, foreigners are not allowed to go inside the shop to purchase maps! Fortunately, one of the guys from the rescue centre was in Hanoi that day and he helped me to buy the maps I needed.

I had another important meeting, with someone who worked in U Minh Ha National Park a few years ago. The meeting was incredibly valuable as he described the methods he used to study wildlife there and reassured me that it is possible to find otters and their spraint in the park. During his time working there he saw a pair of hairy-nosed otters, which he managed to photograph just in time before they scarpered! He also captured images of Asian short-clawed otters using remote cameras. I don’t even dare to imagine how amazing it would feel to see the otters for myself, but I am secretly hoping….

The Head of Steam pub, next door to Huddersfield railway station!

I returned to the UK for a few days to sort out my visa, buy some equipment and generally organise things for my project. I have been frantically rushing around trying to fit everything in whilst also seeing my friends and family. I managed to squeeze in a flying visit to Huddersfield, my beloved northern hometown! I also spent some time with my supervisors, discussing my project. I am now in the process of writing a detailed research plan. We are trying to develop a standardised survey method for U Minh Ha National Park, as this will allow the otter population to be monitored over time and will help to evaluate the success of conservation measures in the park. This is a rather daunting task, as I really want the project to go well from the beginning, so please keep your fingers crossed for me!

My adventure in Vietnam has finally begun, a little later than the other winners, but now I’m ready and raring to go! I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (more commonly known as Saigon) a few days ago. Stepping out of the airport, I was struck immediately by the heat, which was a very welcome change from the recent cold snap in London! Saigon is a vibrant and colourful city, full of bright lights, people and the infamous motorbikes! I have had to re-learn how to cross roads in the face of literally hundreds of these! Gradually you get used to trusting your instinct about when to cross in the hope that the bikes will weave around you- I even braved my first ride on the back of one yesterday!

I have spent most of my time so far making contacts, exploring the city and generally getting a feel for what life in Vietnam is going to be like. I’ve had very successful meetings with several organisations and I hope to build strong partnerships with these over the course of my project. People have been very warm and welcoming- I’ve already been invited to two Christmas parties!

I’m very excited as tomorrow I will be paying my first visit to the field site where my project will be based. This is in a region called U Minh, in the far south-west of Vietnam. It is a rural area that doesn’t attract many tourists. the attraction for me is, of course, the otters that live there! Four species of otter inhabit Vietnam, and two of these are found in U Minh. The latter species is particularly important as it is believed to be the world’s most rare species of otter and is only found in a few locations. Virtually nothing is known about hairy-nosed otters, so one of my aims is to develop a variety of otter conservation and research activities in U Minh to learn more about these animals and the threats they face.

Another big aspect of my project will include developing and delivering an education programme to increase public awareness of the need to protect otters and the wetlands that they live in. Otters play an important role in their ecosystem. They require both water and land for their survival and their presence can provide an indication of the health of the ecosystem. Maintaining healthy wetlands benefits the people, otters and other wildlife that live there.

Yesterday I met a truly inspirational person. Suzanne recently moved to Vietnam from the UK to open an orphanage. She hopes that by ensuring that the children and teenagers in her care receive a good education and stable and loving home, they will be able to lead happy and successful lives. I plan to spend some time with the family over the next few months, teaching the children about Vietnam’s amazing wildlife and helping them to improve their English language skills.

I’ll be using this blog to record my progress and I hope you’ll find it interesting! I will add some photographs shortly. Please feel free to leave comments and ask questions.

Busy times ahead…I’ll keep you posted about how things go!