Operation Wallacea – Transylvania

Operation Wallacea is an organisation that runs a series of biological and conservation management research programmes that operate in remote locations across the world. These expeditions are designed with specific wildlife conservation aims in mind – from identifying areas needing protection, through to implementing and assessing conservation management programmes.

A group of 8 students spend two weeks in Transylvannia in July, spending a week each in two remote picturesque Saxon village in the foothills of the Carpathians to carry out research in the surrounding valleys related to large mammals, small mammals and herpetofauna, birds, bats, plants butterflies and farms. The students will also complete a Transylvanian ecology course comprising the following lectures:

• Transylvanian landscapes (Saxon history, management and threats to the landscape and farming strategies,
• Sampling techniques (the types of survey methods employed and how certain species can act as indicators),
• Biodiversity in Tarnava Mare (biodiversity and endemism in general terms and specific to the region),
• Classification focusing on the mammals and herpetofauna of the region ( amphibians and snakes of Europe, bears, wolves and cats),
  Bird diversity and classification, and conservation strategies in Transylvania ( habitats and bird directives, ecotourism and traditional products).