One of the major challenges for undergraduate students is finding research experience opportunities, both within and outside of the United States. Over the last 6 years, approximately 25% of participants in the
OTS African Ecology and Conservation Undergraduate Semester Abroad program in South Africa have chosen to extend their stay or return to conduct volunteer research. Based on this level of interest, we began exploring the feasibility of yearlong research internships, during which students gain research experience, provide valuable data and personally explore their aptitude for field biology.

Last year, Kelly Racette, an OTS alumna from Duke University, proposed that she return to the Kruger Park to study alternative ways in which to manage elephant impacts on vegetation. Kelly and her co-researcher, Olivia Gliserman, raised enough money to fund a yearlong research project, and arrived in Skukuza in late August, 2011. 

There is considerable debate amongst managers and scientists regarding the effects of elephants on ecosystems. Central to the debate is whether, and to what extent, elephants are having an impact on biodiversity. Recent research suggests that elephants negatively affect vegetation and associated vertebrate and invertebrate communities in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa. Conversely, others suggest that elephant populations are self-regulating and that long-term impacts are limited.  

Historically, the South African Parks Service have either culled, sterilized, or translocated elephants. Now, however, they are seeking more effective, less expensive means of keeping elephants from an area. Kelly and Olivia are researching the alternative ways in which to do so, specifically in the use of chili peppers. Elephants have a complex olfactory system that has evolved to be extremely sensitive and is used in sophisticated chemical communication. This has lead scientists to suggest that elephant movement and feeding could be managed through targeting their olfactory system. One such management method has been the use of chili peppers and chili pastes that contain capsaicin. Plants in the genus Capsicum (peppers) produce capsaicin as a defense mechanism to protect their seeds and fruits from animals that do not serve as dispersal agents. Elephants, therefore, may find the taste or scent of a capsaicin-rich chili powder undesirable. In theory, contact with an object that contains capsaicin will produce local irritation and lacrimation in elephants, as it does in humans, discouraging the animals from eating the plant or moving into a particular area.

Kelly and Olivia have started their fieldwork by assessing the influence of chilies on tame elephants at Elephant Whisperers, an Elephant Interaction and Safari company which houses recused elephants. Testing the chilies on tame elephants affords them access that they would struggle to find under normal conditions. Since the elephants are confined to a relatively small area, they can find the elephants on a regular basis, and start to understand the effects of chilies on their behavior. A second element of their project is attempting to prevent elephants from breaking into the Skukuza Nursery. Towards the end of the dry season, elephants switch their diet from primarily grass and leaves to bark and branches. The nursery in Skukuza represents a delectable resource. To date, KNP staff have managed to keep elephants at bay, but given the length of the dry season, elephants have become more persistent. Kelly and Olivia hung chili and oil soaked rags along the perimeter of the fence and have been observing elephant movement and behavioral changes in the elephant herds. This will be the first real test of the efficacy of chilies in South Africa, and the researchers in the Kruger Park are eagerly waiting their results.

Dr. Jorge Benavides teaches students in the Global Health course at a Costa Rican medical facility.

Dr. Jorge Benavides, coordinator and professor of the Global Health undergraduate semester program in Costa Rica, attended the VII Jornadas de Economía de la Salud event at the Colegio de Medicos de Costa Rica (CMC) on September 30, 2011. He was joined by Dr. Pablo Ortiz, long-term visiting professor for the Global Health program and General Director of the Coto Brus Area of Health, which contains the OTS Las Cruces Biological Station. The conference is the Costa Rican equivalent of a meeting of the American Medical Association. Drs. Benavides and Ortiz shared the collective results of projects conducted by OTS students across the last 3 years. The research findings reveal interesting patterns about the prevalence of gastric cancer in the community around the Las Cruces Biological Station. Dr. Benavides also discussed the objectives and community benefits of the OTS Global Health undergraduate semester program, as well as of other OTS programs which work in this area of Costa Rica, such as the Native American and Pacific Islander Research Experience (NAPIRE) program.

The meeting attendees were quite interested in the presentation, as well as in developing further relationships and collaborations with this research and with the Global Health program. For example, CENDEISSS, which is the education and research branch of Costa Rica's public medical care system (CCSS), is interested in developing collaborative projects, and Centro Centroamericano de Población (CCP) approached Dr. Benavides to offer access to a database of medical surveys across Costa Rica. In addition, medical researchers from the University of Costa Rica (UCR), who currently are conducting studies on gastric cancer, showed strong interest in the results of the OTS students' projects.  

Open Enrollment: Behavior, Ecology and Diversity of Neotropical Social Insects

Social insects are major ecological players in terrestrial ecosystems. This 14-day course will be based at Las Cruces (mid-elevation) and La Selva (lowland wet forest), with short trips to other sites in different life zones. It is directed toward graduate students interested in social insect behavior, ecology, and systematics. The course will cover an array of topics, including social evolution, species richness, sampling methods, behavioral observations, and symbiotic associations. Faculty will present workshops on their taxa and topics of expertise. Students will participate in faculty-led and independent field problems on social insect behavior and ecology.

Dr. Sean O'Donnell is very excited to have the chance to teach this course once again. Students in the first offering ranged from senior PhD students to post-bachelors students still considering graduate school, and everyone gained a great deal from the experience.  The 2012 course will add more time at the second site (Las Cruces) for student projects and welcomes co-instructor (2009 course alumna) Dr. Floria Mora-Kepfer.

Course dates: March 17 - 31, 2012 

Application Deadline: October 15, 2011*   

(*Applications may be accepted during a grace period after the priority deadlines. Please contact Barbara Lewis directly to inquire if applications for this course are still being accepted.)  

For more information and application form, please click here. 

Open Enrollment: Tropical Biology: An Ecological Approach 2012-1

Tropical Biology students examine a strangler fig during an orientation hike. Photo by Erin Kuprewicz.

The Tropical Biology Course (also known as the Fundamentals Course) is an intensive and immersive eight-week field experience for graduate students and has been offered by OTS since 1965. While visiting field sites throughout Costa Rica, students gain invaluable experience learning tropical flora and fauna, designing field problems, collecting and analyzing data, and presenting results in both oral presentations and written reports. Students on the OTS 12-1 course will gain experience: 

• Interacting with eminent tropical ecologists from around the world.
• Exploring diverse tropical habitats with experienced researchers.  
• Formulating and testing hypotheses in field environments.  
• Learning advanced field and lab techniques from experts.  
• Participating in workshops on statistics, R, GIS, genetics, nutrient analysis, and more.  

Course dates: January 23 - March 12, 2012 

Application Deadline: October 7, 2011*

 (*Applications may be accepted during a grace period after the priority deadlines. Please contact  Barbara Lewis directly to inquire if applications for this course are still being accepted.)     

For more information and application form, please click here.  

The deadline for Spring 2012 undergraduate applications in Tropical Biology and Global Health is November 1, 2011.  

If a course still has availability after the deadline, we will accept applications until the program is filled. Please contact the OTS Enrollment Management team (otsadmissions@duke.edu ) if you can help us connect with qualified students who would benefit from our field/research-based experiences. 

NEW: Due to the overwhelming popularity of the Global Health in South Africa Summer course, we will be offering the program twice during Summer 2012.  Please click here for program details.  

The New York Times online Environment section ran an article titled Candid Camera for Mammals at Risk, which highlighted the international work being conducted to document the presence of various species by the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring Network (TEAM). Through photo documentation, researchers hope to determine if fragmented habitat and the declining size of preserves worldwide are having a negative impact on mammal populations. The article featured photos from  

Click here to view the article and photo slide show.     

Photo by Nikki Boertman, 1998, courtesy of The Gainesville Sun

It is with great sadness that we inform the OTS community of the passing of Dr. Hugh Popenoe on September 21, 2011 in Gainesville, Florida. Dr. Popenoe was an emeritus professor at the University of Florida in the Department of Soil and Water Sciences and held former appointments at UF in the Departments of Botany, Agronomy, and Geography as well as at the Centers for Latin American and African Studies.  Dr. Popenoe's involvement in OTS began in February, 1963 when he was a participant in the meeting held at the University of Miami that formally established the Organization for Tropical Studies as a non-profit consortium of universities.  Dr. Popenoe was a strong advocate for OTS courses in sustainable agriculture and served on the OTS Board of Directors throughout his career.  He was a member and former chair of the Palo Verde Advisory Committee, and a long-standing delegate from the University of Florida.  His devotion to teaching was recognized in 2009 by the Society for Economic Botany, which gave him the Charles B. Heiser Jr. award for a lifetime of excellence in mentoring.  Dr. Popenoe is survived by his life-partner, Betty Haeseker, and two sisters.     

One of the world's leading bat ecologists, Dr. Elisabeth Kalko, Director of the Institute for Experimental Ecology at the University of Ulm, Germany, passed away unexpectedly on September 26, 2011 while conducting research in Tanzania. She was 49.

Since 2000, Kalko held a joint appointment at STRI and as director and full professor at the Institute of Experimental Ecology at the University of Ulm. Her research has highlighted the importance of bats for maintenance of tropical forests and has revealed that ecolocation signal intensity has been a largely underestimated aspect in echolocation research. Kalko initiated and led a series of German Research Foundation (DFG) projects into tropical bat ecology, biodiversity and zoonoses on all continents, she also spearheaded EU-funded research in bioacoustics.

OTS Science Committee Announces Grant Competition

The OTS program on "Emerging Frontiers in Tropical Science" (EFTS) is designed to identify emerging issues in tropical science and draw together scientists across a range of disciplines, institutions, and geographies to holistically address these issues. We are pleased to announce a  new competition to hold expert-workshops on "Emerging Scientific Frontiers. "  Scientists are asked to prepare a very brief proposal of a workshop on scientific theme that would be held at OTS stations. 

Researchers of all nationalities working on tropical issues may apply for an EFTS-Working Group grant. Post-docs are encouraged to submit as co-PIs. It is highly preferable for the lead investigator to be affiliated with an OTS member institution. 

The proposal deadline is December 1, 2011. Proposals may be submitted at other times after consultation with the Co-Chairs of the OTS Science Committee (William Michener and Sean O'Donnell). Proposals will be given a response by early January.