Archive for November 2016
Sinharaja 2016 Geography IA Field Study
As usual, Sinharaja offered many superb sightings of endemic rainforest creatures: Serendib Scops Owl (Otus thilohoffmanni) in the Sinharaja core zone, flanked by two different frogs photographed near Martin’s Lodge.
Towards the end of the school year and before the South West monsoon set in OSC’s DP1 Geography class took its annual IA field study to Sinharaja rainforest. This was the 11th OSC field study at Sinharaja (the 2015 trip was our 10 year anniversary) and, like past visits, it offered an unparalleled opportunity for the students to engage in field work inside and along the edges of a protected Sri Lankan rainforest.
Keeping in mind the protected area and the impressive forest area that Sinharaja hosts, my students focused on investigating questions relating to human communities on the park boundaries. Using questionnaires and 1:1 interviews with residents they explored cropping, land use, water resources and tea patterns in the study area. There were strong spatial elements in the study that were later incorporated into their reports using GIS. This year we used relatively new 1:10,000 digital vector data from the Sri Lanka Survey Department as well as the most current population and housing data from the Sri Lanka Department of Census and Statistics.
Once again we stayed at Martin’s Wijeysinghe’s Jungle Lodge. Martin provided one of our first interviews, which helped set the stage for many more fruitful conversations. The Sinharaja Forest Department guides played a critical role in translating and being a bridge between our group and the local community. In many cases they took us to visit neighbors as well as their own families. We estimate that we were able to interview roughly 60% of the households in the Kudawa area. On our first full day of field work we were in the Kudaa village area and had a traditional lunch with Martin’s daughter’s family. On the second day we explored eastwards up a little used road to the family that has Sri Lanka spurfowl (Galloperdix bicalcarata) visitors every morning. We only heard the bird but the students conducted several memorable interviews that morning. Our group of students was supported by Kamilla who joined us as a female chaperone and frog locater par excellence.
The field work was balanced with down time spent soaking tired feet in the nearby stream and climbing Moulawella on the final day. On our way out we had the good fortune to see a rare Serendib Scops Owl (Otus thilohoffmanni) in a fern thicket. By that time the students had been inundated with views of rare birds, frogs, snakes but I hope that one day they’ll look back and realize what a special final sighting this was!
Interviewing Martin’s Wijeysinghe as part of the Geography IA study.
Snapshots from the field work in and around Sinharaja’s north western Kudawa entrance. The poster, now out of print, decorates the common area at Martin’s lodge.
Students broke into two different groups so that we could maximize the interviews and responses that we collected. I had the opportunity to spend time with both groups as we covered different areas near Kudawa village. One of the memorable interview and conversations that we had was with a family that grew tea, cinnamon and various fruit in their home garden. We were welcomed into their home and were able to observe the process of cinnamon bark stripping. Just before we left they offered a freshly cut pineapple from their garden.
Miscellaneous snapshots from the Sinharaja rainforest area.
View looking north-west from Moulawella peak. On the final day we do a hike up to this point to give the class an appreciation for the Sinharaja area and the effort that has been made to protect its spectacular rainforests.
Sinharaja’s guides play a key role in any visitor’s experience in the rainforest. They are knowledgeable, hard working and patient with their clients. OSC enjoys a warm relationship with their team and we have enjoyed getting to know more about the rainforest and their communities through the guides. I was able to take this picture of most of them on one of our first days before people had arrived at the Kudawa ticket entrance.
OSC’s Class of 2017 DP Geography students with Martin Wijeysinghe, their teacher (the author) and Kamilla.
Past Blog Posts on Sinharaja
OSC’s field study site in Sinharaja: a map created with ARCGIS 10.4 and recently released 1:10,000 data from the Sri Lankan Survey Department.
SELECTED REFERENCES
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DeZoysa, Neela and Rhyana Raheem. Sinharaja: A Rainforest in Sri Lanka. Colombo: March for Conservation, 1990. Print.
Gunatilleke, C.V.S, et al. Ecology of Sinharaja Rain Forest and the Forest Dynamics Plot in Sri Lanka’s Natural World Heritage Site.Colombo: WHT Publications, 2004. Print.
Harrison, John. A Field Guide to the Birds of Sri Lanka. UK: Oxford University Press, 1999. Print.
Kotagama, Sarath W and Eben Goodale. “The composition and spatial organization of mixed-species flocks in a Sri Lankan rainforest.” Forktail. 2004. Print.
Lockwood, Ian. “Into the Wet: Field Notes From Sri Lanka’s Wet Zone.” Sanctuary Asia. August/September 2007. 3-11. Print. PDF.
Lockwood, Ian. “Montane Biodiversity in the Land of Serendipity.” Sanctuary Asia. July 2010. Print.
Sri Lanka Survey Department. Sheets 80_x & 81_x (1:10,000). Colombo: 2015. Maps & Spatial Data.
Warakagoda. Deepal et. al. Birds of Sri Lanka (Helm Field Guides). London: Helms Guides, 2012. Print.
Wijeyeratne, Gehan de Silva. Sri Lankan Wildlife (Bradt Guides). Bucks, England: Bradt Travel Ltd. 2007. Print.
Vigallon, S. The Sinharaja Guidebook for Eco-Tourists. Colombo: Stamford Lake Publications, 2007. Print.
