I enjoy what I do for a living. I am a professor of wildlife conservation at a fabulous university. To get to this point I have been both determined and lucky. I am one of those fortunate souls that has achieved a childhood ambition: to study wild animals in wild places. In this capacity, much of my adult life has been spent preparing for-, participating in-, and returning from- field work in distant parts of the world. These field opportunities have been, and still very much are, formative experiences for me. In the field I sharpen my research skillset, observe animals in their natural settings (i.e., not in computer simulations), and hope that I can describe some new or novel aspect of animal ecology which could positively benefit their conservation.
While a big part of me is nourished by fieldwork, another part of me breaks the moment I step aboard an international flight taking me away from my home, from my wife and daughter, and from the normal day-to-day life that my family and I cherish. I can’t seem to fix this ache. This is a feeling that I experience even during relatively short (1-3 weeks) trips abroad. Imagine what the emotions must be like for my African graduate students – Arthur Muneza and Tutilo Mudumba – when they elect to come to Michigan State University (MSU) to pursue graduate research training. The first time that Arthur, for instance, boarded a plane was when he came to MSU last autumn to initiate his M.S. degree. He stepped aboard that flight with the knowledge that he would not see his father or his brother again for at least 9 months. In August of this year Tutilo left Uganda, left his job, his home, his wife, and his two children to start his own graduate degree in RECaP. Try to conceptualize for a moment what Tutilo must have felt when taking off in that plane knowing that he would not hold his daughter’s hand or read a book to his son for at least 5 months.
While a big part of me is nourished by fieldwork, another part of me breaks the moment I step aboard an international flight taking me away from my home, from my wife and daughter, and from the normal day-to-day life that my family and I cherish. I can’t seem to fix this ache. This is a feeling that I experience even during relatively short (1-3 weeks) trips abroad. Imagine what the emotions must be like for my African graduate students – Arthur Muneza and Tutilo Mudumba – when they elect to come to Michigan State University (MSU) to pursue graduate research training. The first time that Arthur, for instance, boarded a plane was when he came to MSU last autumn to initiate his M.S. degree. He stepped aboard that flight with the knowledge that he would not see his father or his brother again for at least 9 months. In August of this year Tutilo left Uganda, left his job, his home, his wife, and his two children to start his own graduate degree in RECaP. Try to conceptualize for a moment what Tutilo must have felt when taking off in that plane knowing that he would not hold his daughter’s hand or read a book to his son for at least 5 months.
Walking the ramp to board this international flight my chest aches with the knowledge that I do so without the accompaniment of my wife and daughter. But my emotions must pale in comparison to my East African students who come for extended periods to study at MSU.
My 5-year old daughter seems to manage my own absence far better than I do. She is the one that gives me the pep talks. Over a pancake breakfast this morning, for instance, she told me that “the giraffes and lions need your help Daddy. And Tutilo and Arthur need your help too.” In her sweet voice, my daughter summed up the two Grand Challenges facing wildlife conservation in the 21st century. Challenge 1) To stop the precipitous drop of wildlife populations, like lions and giraffes, throughout East Africa. Challenge 2) To create opportunities for students, like Arthur and Tutilo, to attain Ph.D. degrees in wildlife conservation in East Africa so that they don't have to leave their home, their family, and their friends. When I say that these are Grand Challenges I mean that they are extremely complex and difficult issues to solve.
From left to right, Tutilo, Jorem, and Arthur at a RECaP barbecue this past autumn.
Giraffe and lion populations have reduced by half in just the last 15 years. There are now less than 75,000 giraffes and less than 25,000 lions remaining in Africa. While these populations are dropping rapidly, it is important to note that we are in no risk of losing species like giraffes or lions from the world. Zoos have demonstrated their masterful capability to maintain studbooks for each species of interest, along with an accompanying Species Survival Plan which determines how best to combine genetic pools from captive facilities across the world to maintain healthy, and non in-bred, animals. So if you are a person that is fine having access to interesting animals in a zoo, then there is really nothing more that we need to do. We are good. If instead, you are person that needs to know, even if you never experience it first-hand, that a lion’s roar still echoes across a valley in some distant land, then now is the time to act. If we fail to act now, these dramatic population declines will continue to progress and we will lose these iconic species from the wild.
Lions are in trouble and without innovative solutions to promote the conservation of this species populations will continue to decline as they veer towards extinction.
Because there are no PhD-level training programs in wildlife conservation in East Africa, students with a passion to preserve animal populations need to go abroad to attain their terminal degree. It is remarkable that the East African region, widely considered to be the veritable Eden for large mammals, is devoid of advanced educational research and training opportunities for students that intend to devote their careers to wildlife conservation.
My responsibility as the Director of the RECaP Laboratory is to find solutions to these Grand Challenges. And the quest for these solutions takes me abroad. With the power of collaborative partnerships with organizations such as Makerere University, Giraffe Conservation Foundation, and Uganda Wildlife Authority I can envision what these solutions might look like. This trip will help to refine that vision.
My responsibility as the Director of the RECaP Laboratory is to find solutions to these Grand Challenges. And the quest for these solutions takes me abroad. With the power of collaborative partnerships with organizations such as Makerere University, Giraffe Conservation Foundation, and Uganda Wildlife Authority I can envision what these solutions might look like. This trip will help to refine that vision.
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