Ways for Students and Volunteers to

Get Involved!

There are many ways for visitors to get involved at Yanayacu. Basically, they can be broken into two general categories. Physical labor, such as trail building, or biological research. Below are some broad categories of volunteering with some examples of projects carried out by past visitors. We also welcome anyone wishing to develop their own studies, such as those interested in working on artistic projects or those hoping to broaden the educational scope of Yanayacu.

Biological Research Assistants

Because we function primarily as a research station, there are always projects in need of extra help. Generally, if you wish to help out with biological research, it is best to contact us well in advance of your intended stay. This way we can help place you on a project that most closely meets your interests and goals. For example, if you are interested in birds, butterflies, frogs, plants, insects, or any other organism, we would try to put you to work on something involving your favorite organism. No prior experience is necessary. Several ongoing studies are designed for non-biologists or biology students who cannot stay at Yanayacu for very long. Everyone, however, is welcome to help. For more serious biology students, we encourage you to think of areas of interests that could lead to independent or collaborative projects with other students and biologists.
  • Students may learn to find, collect, and raise caterpillars to help with our long term caterpillar/parasitoid project.
  • Students may help to locate and monitor bird nests.
  • Students may search for frogs during the night to study their reproductive habits.
  • Students may observe spider colonies to learn what prey the spiders capture.
  • Students may examine the pollinators that visit certain types of flowers.

Independent Research Projects

We highly encourage everyone who intends to pursue biological studies in the future to develop a research project for which they can take most of the control. This would mean as little or as much guidance from onsite biologists as you need to create a study which fits your own interests. If you have ideas before you arrive, we can help you find appropriate reading material before you come or help suggest directions for your study. Many students also arrive, spend some time working on pre-existing projects, and then spin off onto an idea of their own. We encourage students to take on small projects that can be completed, synthesized, and written up for publication (or close to it) before you leave Yanayacu.

Students have.........

  • Created a guide to the common plants of Yanayacu
  • Videotaped the activity around a White-tailed Tyrranulet nest
  • Surveyed the insect fauna of bromeliads
  • Compared physical structures of forests of differing ages.
  • Monitored Green-fronted Lancebill humming bird nests

Helping to Preserve and Protect a Forest

Despite being as environmentally concious as possible, simply by being in the forest, students, tourists, and researchers have some effect. It is important to create and maintain low impact trails throughout our preserve. For this reason, many volunteers get involved in building or fixing trails. The station, run mostly by the power of volunteers, is also always in need of improvements such as building laboratory space or maintenence of existing facilities. We also encourage people who have special skills or interests to create betterment projects of their own. (Of course, it is helpful if your spelling skills are better than the volunteer who made the sign on the right!)

In the past Volunteers have.........

  • Built an orchid garden
  • Planted trees
  • Fixed trails
  • Mapped out existing trails and the river system surrounding the station
  • Painted buildings
  • Improved the water delivery system (spring fed)

HOMHOMHOME ......................................PAST STUDENT RESEARCH INTERNS